Field Marshall Hrádek

End of Times

Well folks, so long. I have moved my blog to www.fieldmarshallhradek.com so you won't see any new posts here unless the other one doesn't work out.

posted by FM Hradek @ 4/09/2005 04:51:00 PM 0 comments

Signatures

Okay, no I am not really hot on signatures as far as e-mails go or even in forums. Lately, I have gotten fairly involved with Day of Defeat and the Source engine Beta and so I caruse the forums a bit. I see a lot of crap sigs, amazing sigs and then the "blah" ones. So, taking my modest Photoshop skills, I present to you my sig: Yes, my online handle when I play games is always Mean Mr. Mustard unless its role playing... then its Creswell. I am staying late at work to make up lost time from yesterday. Have seen several movies lately that I should mention. "Ghost in the Shell: 2" was interesting. It was dissapointing actually in that it really didn't introduce anything new. More rants about reality, purpose and soul. The updated CGI graphics to some of the scenes are good to see and some extra details in some of the charecters also were a plus. I think it may be worth matinee prices though if you really enjoyed the first one but I personally give it rental status. "Kaera: The Prophecy" was in my opinion great. This feature was completely CGI like Final Fantasy. It was worth full price at a theatre for the stunning visuals but its not nesseasrily a flick I would have to own. The concept was unique, the voiceactiving and visual awesome, the whole experience was refreshing. Frank Miller's "Sin City" was also very well done. I think that this was a great rendition of the comic book to movie scene. Some, if not most scenes are beatuifully remisisant of a comic book with stark contrasts and noticable exagerations in details. Definately worth the full price. It is a tad disturbing in places.

posted by FM Hradek @ 4/05/2005 06:24:00 PM 0 comments

Craptastic Hardware

Somewhere along the line, someone decided that the millions of chipsets that are produced at VIA don't need to be strictly PCI 2.2 compliant. I spent this weekend updating my home network. My puppy Kiko decided that the 100 foot LAN cable running from my cable modem to my router was fun to chew on. I suppose I could have replaced or even repaired the cable but the wireless solution seemed to solve more than just my broken connection. My wife would be relieved that the cable was gone and I wouldn't trip over it every day. Anyway, the Netgear WG311T netcard was my first choice. 108 Mbps type G, it was what I initially purchased. I would play Counter-Strike: Source for like 15 minutes and bam... hard freeze. I restart and same thing. After doing research, I find out that the 108 type wireless NIC cards have an issue with VIA chipsets. The NIC chipset by Atheros doesn't communicate very well supposedly because of the PCI problem mentioned earlier under stress loads (like gaming). So I took it back and got the 54g which features a T1 chipset. Works like a charm. It even has a better connection to the router. The numbers like 11, 54, and 108 are the transfer rates between other wireless computers on the network. 54 MB per second is enough for anyone. If folks bring over a computer to a LAN, I will simply either buy a couple USB wireless NICs to use or get a couple long cables to set up temporarily. Since the router is now over the modem which is by my X-Box, I took the opportunity to sign up for X-Box LIVE. It was a free 2 month trial and so far I like it. Its easy to use and I find it fun to race or fight against other people online. I especially like Rally Sport Challenge 2. I got some solid practice time for my piano in this weekend. Daylight savings has thrown off my previous sleeping schedule so I came in an hour late today. I removed the forums from my website since they seem redundant (thanks JP). The Pope of the Roman Catholic church died this weekend. Although I myself am not a practising Catholic, I admired his willingness to promote peace and unity throughout the world regardless of faith (or lack thereof). His contributions to humanity were great. I wonder what his replacement will have in store for that church.

posted by FM Hradek @ 4/04/2005 11:20:00 AM 2 comments