Slaxxor

I bought the Orange Box about three weeks ago, and now that I’ve had plenty of time to play with it, I think it’s time for a review. The Orange Box as an overall package really is the best deal I’ve ever seen in a game package. It’s not at all over-hyped. I could see a pack of games of this quality selling for 49.95 maybe a year or two years after it came out, not on the first day. Any one of the included games would be worth $50 to me, with the possible exception of Portal, which is quite short, but a gem nonetheless. For reference, the Orange Box includes Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. If you already have HL2 and/or E1 on your account, they will become available as a gift, which you can give to anyone you like with a Steam account.

Portal: $20 by itself on Steam, or $50 in the Orange Box - **4.5 Stars**

I hadn’t read much about Portal when I bought the Orange Box, but it looked interesting, so it was the second thing I played, after Team Fortress 2. It’s an amazingly well-done first person puzzle game, and is one of the most novel and entertaining games I’ve ever played. You play as an android who is participating in a testing program run by a company called Aperture Science. You are given a gun that shoots portals. The gun (after the first few levels, where you gain upgrades) can shoot 2 simultaneous portals, one blue and one orange. When you walk through one, you come out the other. In order to complete the puzzles, you’ll have to do a combination of walking through portals to access otherwise unreachable areas, jumping through portals (your momentum is unaffected, so if you fall at high speed into a portal on the floor, you can launch yourself out of a linked portal on the wall with great speed), throwing objects through portals, etc. The puzzles are challenging and rewarding, but none are so hard as to be uncompleteable. Throughout the game you are guided by a computerized voice, called GlaDOS. She (yes, she’s a she) helps you learn the ropes and guide you through the tests, and is one of my favorite parts of the game. Some of her comments are so utterly hilarious that I was forced to stop in the middle of the puzzle I was working on and just laugh and pound my desk. I don’t want to give anything away regarding the game’s resolution, but I’ll just say this: watch the credits. The credits feature a song, and the song makes them the BEST credits ever seen in the gaming community, and make the credits an immaculate ending for what I feel is a flawless game. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because the game took me less than two hours to complete. It has some replay value due to the entertaining narration and Advanced Maps and Challenges unlockable upon completion, but I was starving for more puzzles when I beat the game. From what I’ve heard, the game was really a test by Valve of the portal gun, which may be used in future games, possibly even a future Half Life game. The possibilities are endless. In addition, if you’re feeling adventurous, there is a fairly simple method that allows you to play the maps from Half Life 2 with the portal gun. I’ll post the link when I get home (at school right now) or it can be found easily on Google. Team Fortress 2: $30 by itself on Steam, or $50 in OB - **5 Stars**

TF2 is really the only reason I bought the Orange Box at all. I enjoyed HL2, but I never was obsessed with it enough to play through all of Episode 1. However, when Valve announced that HL2:E2 would include TF2, there was really no decision. The first videos of Team Fortress captivated me, and now that TF2 is finally (finally, finally, finally) here, it’s completely worth the wait. The graphics are highly stylized, almost cartoonish, but instead of being a fault (some people have criticized the game for its cartoonish style), this enhances the game’s feel and experience. The designers of TF2 stated that because all shooters are destined to be unrealistic in some aspect, instead of trying to make up for it with hyperrealistic graphics, they would exaggerate in the other direction. The physics in the game are also unreal, but insanely fun, featuring Soldiers and Demomen launching themselves into the air using explosions and double-jumping scouts. The combination of style and physics make this game a perfect blend, and the end result is a game that is fun to play and, at times, hilarious. I think that this game is more similar in gameplay to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory than Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, it’s quasi-sequel, is, due to its smaller map size, more emphasized team work, and pure fun to play. Quake Wars is great, but its gameplay is much more like the Battlefield games, with the much larger maps and vehicles. These large sizes can lead to people just rushing to vehicles and trying to play vigilante and kill the whole team themselves. In Team Fortress, Medics team up with Heavies and decimate the enemies, demomen and engineers help each other defend objectives, etc. Teamwork is essential to victory, thanks to extremely well-designed classes and maps. There’s even a few custom maps popping up, and custom-map-dedicated servers. In summary, buy this game: it’s the best multiplayer shooter of the year, and more than likely, the decade.

Regarding HL2:E2, I haven’t actually played all the way through it yet, due to being busy with my “life” and TF2, but when I finish it, I’ll post a review.

Also, there’s a great Flash version of Portal at http://www.portal.wecreatestuff.com. I highly recommend it if you want to see the concept of Portal before shelling out the cash.

In case you haven’t heard, the greatest thing since Google is Google Docs. It basically sticks Microsoft Word inside your browser, letting you access all of your documents, spreadsheets, and just recently, slide show presentations, all from anywhere with internet access. It’s a fantastic service, allowing multiple people to collaborate on one document with real time updates as they edit the document. I’ve been using it for homework, writing my various attempts at stories, and most successfully so far, my journal. I’ve never had success keeping a journal until Google Docs came along. Now I’m writing in it nightly, and haven’t missed a day in two weeks (since I started). Anyway, on to the project at hand.

To demonstrate the ease-of-use and utility of Google Docs, I’m going to show you step-by-step how to create a spreadsheet and graph to track your vehicle’s fuel economy (gas milage, for those of you with IQs below the room temperature).

Step 1. Create a Google Docs account.
If you don’t already have a Google account, first slap yourself for a few minutes and rethink your life, and then go make one. It’s simple, fast, and the most useful account you’ll ever sign up for on the web.

Step 2. Create a New Spreadsheet.
From the Google homepage, click the “more” button in the top left corner of the screen. From the pull down menu that will appear, click on Documents. This will bring you to the Google Docs control panel. Next, click the New button and select spreadsheet. A new spreadsheet will now appear as a new tab, unless you have IE6 or older, in which case, slap yourself for a few minutes, rethink your life, and get Firefox. Congratulations, you just made your first Google Spreadsheet.

Step 3. Name your spreadsheet and prepare it for data entry.
Here’s the fun part. First step, title your spreadsheet by clicking once in the upper left hand corner where it currently says “Unsaved Spreadsheet”. I’d recommend naming it [Your Car] Fuel Economy or Gas Mileage, but it’s completely up to you. Once you’ve done that, click into square A1. Type into this box the word “Miles”. Next, enter the word “Gallons” into box B1. If the word don’t fit entirely at first, simply click and drag the side of the column to expand it as needed. Enter the word “Date” into box C1. Finally, enter “MPG” or “Mileage” into box D1. If you’ve followed me correctly so far, your spreadsheet should look like mine.

Step 4. Collect and Enter Data
This part may take some time if you don’t keep track of your mileage to some extent already. Here’s what you do, if you don’t already. The next time you get gas, reset your trip odometer. Note: for this method to work, you have to fill your tank completely. Next time you fill your tank, write down or remember exactly how much gas it took to completely refil my tank. For my example, the last time I bought gas I had driven 320 miles and it took 14.9 gallons of gas to fill up my tank. Now, enter this date into the spreadsheet. I would write 320 under Miles, 14.9 under gallons, and the current date under date. Your spreadsheet should look like mine but with different numbers.

Step 5. Insert a math function into the spreadsheet
In order for the spreadsheet to be able to calculate the gas mileage, you have to tell it where your data is located. To do this, first select the Forumulas tab at the top of the screen. Next, click cell D4 and press the “more>>” button on the far right side of the screen, next to Sum, Product, etc. This will open up a small window. Scroll down in the Math category until you see QUOTIENT. Click on Quotient. This will insert an incomplete formula into the cell you selected (under MPG). It will read as follows:
=QUOTIENT(numerator, denominator) To complete this formula, plug in A2 for the numerator and B2 for the denominator. Your forumula should now read =QUOTIENT(A2,B2) Next, press escape. If you set up the formula correctly, a number should appear in box D4. My number is 21. If you get a reasonable number, you’ve successfully set up this part of your spreadsheet. Note: you do not have to repeat this step each time you enter data. Just put your mouse over the corner of cell D4 until your cursor becomes a + (plus) sign, and drag downward to apply the QUOTIENT calculation to all the cells below it.

Step 6. Create your graph.
Here’s where your spreadsheet starts to look cool. Go back to the Edit tab at the top of your screen. Now, select cells C1-D5, or however much data you have entered. Be sure to include the headers. For explanatory purposes, I’m going to add a few more lines of date. Click the Insert Graph button that looks like a pie chart (it’s on the left side of the edit bar). This will bring up a window that looks like this.

To make our graph look right, we need to change a few of these options. First, click the “Lines” button where it says What Type? For the subtype, I recommend choosing the second option from the left (lines with dots). Check the box that says “Use Column C as labels”, as well as the one that says “Use row 1 as labels”. If you like, you can label the horizontal axis Date and the verticle axis MPG. Now that all that’s finished, click Save Chart. Congratulations, you’re finished! If you followed my directions exactly (and I didn’t mess up) your chart should now look like this.

This spreadsheet will let you monitor your car’s fuel efficiency, as well as your driving habits. For example, if you drive consistently faster from one filling to another, you will see a dip in your car’s fuel economy. This will allow you to adjust your driving habits for minimum fuel consumption.

Thank you for reading, and I hope this tutorial/instructable was helpful to you. Tell your friends!

Today’s the day! I’ve been waiting for roughly two years and I finally get to play Quake Wars! I’ve just started downloading the 727 mb file at about 140 kb/s. Kinda slow, but not bad considering that when I tried the torrent there were 380 seeders to about 3000 downloaders, yielding a grand total down speed of 17 kb/s for me. By 4:30 I should be fragging away in a bliss that will be matched only by the game’s full release. I’ll report back when I’ve played for a while on how awesome the game is. Yes, how awesome it is. This game has no capacity for bad qualities. None.

If you have a suitable computer, please do yourself a favor and download this amazing game here.

From what I’ve read, the map, Valley, that comes with the demo, favors the Strogg forces heavily, so keep that in mind when you get to the spawn select screen. Also, ATI users need to download and install an ATI Hotfix released today to run the Quake Wars demo. This Hotfix can be found here. Thanks for reading!

I know this is way old news, but it’s new/old to me. Confused? Yeah, me too. So here’s the deal: I got XM (satellite radio for anyone living in or under a rock) shortly after it came out, when the second generation Delphi receivers were the top o’ the line. I got a Delphi Roady2, a nice little radio, for $50 bucks at BestBuy. It comes with everything needed to use in the car (mobile antenna, cassette adapter, DC power adapter) and even has a built-in FM transmitter for those of us without cassette decks in the car. For (I think) another $30, I got the Roady2 Home Kit. This included an AC adapter, larger Home antenna, and a nifty little remote control. As for content, there’s more than any one person could possibly want, and this is not a bad thing. There are now 4 24/7 comedy channels, whose only downside is the 5 minutes (or so) of annoying commercials per hour. Evidently all the music channels are commercial-free, but some of the talk/comedy/etc channels have commercials. Not a large problem though, all you have to do is change the channel. Anyway, I like the comedy and classical channels best, so I stuck those on my presets. Very easy interface overall, and there’s 30 presets available, like 8 backlight colors, and a neat little song recall function. When you hear a song you like, you hold in the OK button for about 2 seconds. It then saves the song’s info, and the next time it shows up on any channel, it notifies you, and allows you to go to the song with the push of one button. This feature might be the coolest thing about satellite radio in general, as it allows you to monitor all 200+ channels for your favorite songs. This radio now sells for less than $50, and there’s also a little conversion kit that turns the Roady2 into a mobile radio, including a battery, headphones that act as an antenna, and an FM tuner for when you can’t get the satellite signal (which is almost never). Really a superb piece of electronics at a tiny price.

Additionally, there’s a promotional code you can use when signing up that waives the activation fee and the first three months of service, as well as letting you purchase a year of service for 77.00 instead of the 12.99 monthly rate. Based on the amount of time I spend using the radio and its quality of sound and content, I think the 12.99 price is too low. But please don’t raise it XM

Thanks for reading,

Corin

Well it’s finally up, Chellberg.Flphost.com, and I’ve got WordPress installed with a nice looking theme, but I’m not moving yet.  I posted over there about it, but basically, I like getting the traffic from WordPress, I’m not thrilled about it being Flphost.com, and plus, I’m on vacation for the next week.  I’ll be back on Sunday, and I’ll probably have made a decision by then.  Installing WordPress was very easy, and once it was running I imported this entire blog with a few clicks.  Very simple.  I also added a little icon to my page, the one that appears next to the URL in your browser and bookmarks It’s a little picture of Einstein. 
Anyways, that’s the news about that.  I’ll probably do a few more posts today, and a few tomorrow, and then I’ll resume posting on Sunday.

I think that due to how great WordPress has been, with a number of hits (amazing) and the immense ease of use, I’m going to keep the blog here until I get a real domain, and use chellberg.flphost.com (whenever it propagates) to hone (learn) my skills regarding web design.  If I somehow accidentally got something to look really really cool, I might decide to move to chellberg.flphost.com, but I kinda doubt it.  This current setup is just too nice to walk out on until I get my own domain.

My other option would be to start some other kind of website with chellberg.flphost.com, besides a blog.  I thought of making a forum for my entire high school once, but come to think of it, it’d be next to impossible to moderate without 30 or 40 dedicated moderators (my high school has ~4000 students) so that idea’s out.  I also thought of making a forum just for my friends, to put funny stuff or interesting stuff or whatever, but then I realized, *doh*, Facebook already did that.  So I’m sorta running low on ideas…but I’ll think of something.  Using it to practice web design isn’t a waste at all, really.  So yeah, that’s the update for Technology tonight.  Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have something interesting up on chellberg.flphost.com to show you. 
Until then, good night, and good luck.

Hehe.  Always wanted to say that.

Thought I’d try to post pictures of the themes right here, just for kicks.

I spoke to Gnomish (guy who’s giving me the domain) today and everything seems to be set up properly. All I have to wait for now is the subdomain to propagate (realize it’s pointing somewhere else than it is, basically) and I can start. I’ve decided to install WordPress, and I’ve already uploaded all the necessary files such that when the subdomain is ready all I have to do is begin the configuration. I haven’t picked a theme yet, but I really like Darkwater 1.0, Dark LiquidCard 2.0, and Sca4ered 1.5. If anyone has an opinion about these, please let me know, or else I might become indecisive for the next month and never get anything done.

Installing these things seems to be very easy. All you do is modify a php file with your SQL db information, upload it, and get started. Might be harder than it seems though… I’ll find out

Yeah… I got really tired of doing the “small jobs” for this guy… cause he was being really picky and lazy about it. Anyways, a friend is loaning me a subdomain (Chellberg.Flphost.com) and hosting to start on my very own site. It’ll take a lot of time to get it anywhere near a reader ready state so I’ll keep the blog here for a while. Hopefully Max’ll help me get it looking as professional as his. Either that or I go the cheap route and stick a php theme on there… Anyway, that’ll be fun.

Anyway, today I thought I’d write about X-Plane. X-Plane is an extremely accurate and expansive flight sim (read their description for more bragging) that has scenery files for pretty much the entire planet, plus Mars. You can do any number of things, from flying the Hindenburg to piloting a 747 to landing the Space Shuttle. The control is so realistic (I assume) that it actually makes it difficult and sometimes annoying to fly (could be I’m just bad at it, or that my joystick sucks) but the experience is so engrossingly accurate that for a while you may actually believe that you’re flying this plane, and start to get very very nervous as you stall into a dive and red-out from the excessively high g’s.

The first plane I flew was the 747, and I couldn’t get it to move for about 25 minutes. Turned out I had to take off the brake, haha. After I got that taken care of, I was able to easily take off and climb up to about 30,000 feet. Then I started to ignore the stick and play with the extensive buttons on the on-screen controls. Pretty much anything you click on the screen will do something to the plane, normally bad. Example: I clicked the “Dump Fuel” button. About a minute later I crashed. It takes a bit of setup to get the controls working, especially if you don’t want to have to stop and try to fumble the stick with your left hand while using your right hand to click the tiny controls. Other than that, X-Plane is a very scenic, accurate, and enjoyable flight simulator, whose $70 price tag is well earned by its vast scenery and aircraft selection. If there’s even a chance you think you’ll like a flight simulator or ever want to be a pilot, this game is for you.

Today I’ve been trying to get a domain (corinchellberg.com) so I can customize the site a bit more. Since I don’t have my own PayPal to buy one, I’ve been doing small jobs for a guy I know who owns a php installation company. Hopefully sooner or later he’ll buy the domain and I’ll be able to start playing around with it. Before he does that, apparently, I need to secure my hosting from Gnomish/Ricky Kozlowski. Wish me luck