Jumping Ship?

Ive found a new blogging software ive simply just fallen in love with.

i know i know this is tradition with me, but i always gotta be advancing to the next best thing! Its how i roll! Its how i live and remain excited :D
Ive loved using Blogger throughout the past 2 years and i have ZERO intention of deleting or editing ANY of it, so itll remain.

But if your a good person and visit http://kyle.blackjagstudios.com to come here, youll be happy to know you need not change your links when the time comes. To those following me via RSS feed, you guys might need to update it... but again, just hammer the address above and youll eventually come across a squeaky clean Wordpress powered blog.
It seems like a rather permanent solution for me, its not missing anything and has all the power id want out of a blogging software, so i dont see myself switching from that for a few years :)

The chronicles of my life will continue!

Its a JibJab Life

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Perfecting this passage

"
Some Look. Others See.
Some Realize. Others Perceive.
Some Think. Others Acknowledge.
Some Act. Others Embrace.
Some Win. Others Succeed.
"
~Kyle, WIP


looking to perfect this little 5 line poem thing... with some better words to fit the rhymes..

The complexity of English Literature

I was walking back to work, sipping on Pepsi from Dairy Queen when i noticed the sign "No Entry, Buses only" and i got to thinking, "Buses" sounds really stupid as a plural.

From now on, im going to call them "Busi" (Buhs-eye), i will make it work, and convince all authorities to join me. It sounds more sophisticated, and i dont feel ive lost IQ by uttering it.

Im also bringing back "Porch Monkey" from a derogatory slang term to a different form of derogatory slang terminology,
and im also bringing back "groovy" and "wicked"

whos with me?

For my Brothers Birthday

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Happy Birthday Man!

a little change in direction

Ok so a while back i was picked up by LukeWarm Media for development on project LightSpire, a CryEngine2 mod with commercial purposes in mind.
After about a month of struggling and trying to fit myself into the pipeline, ive finally reached a boiling point. Personally, i dont think the quality of my animation could match up to what the project is looking for. I know the knowledge and technical knowhow, but im still green. And green is where i shall remain for now.

Putting things into perspective, if i want to animate, i want to be good. I couldn't live with myself passing off mediocre quality to my boss(es). So in the near future i plan on attending one more school, this time the online Animation Mentor, hopefully to quell my technical boundry of knowing somethings wrong, but not being able to come up with a good solution to fill the gap. Id like to be the type of person who can find nuances and fix them with ease. Also some general overall practices would be ideal.

So for now, im putting aside my dream of working on assets for a game company, instead shifting focus towards being a Website Infrastructure Programmer and Community Manager for a future promising game company.
No doubt the work i do will look nice on my resume, and with my current job in the eLearning Industry for about 3 years as an Actionscript Programmer / Technical Assistant / and Troubleshooting Specialist, ive pretty much solidified the fact i can get hired into a web design firm for something, from HTML to PHP/MySQL and Actionscript. Hell im willing to learn new things like Java in order to make websites work nicely. I wont learn ASP though, fuck that.

Working on the website(s) for both the company and game site, is a different kind of work for instance I still need direction from the main guy behind it all, but i get my freedom back. Its far less demanding on my stress levels, and i look forward to making the best damn sites i can make.
Not my preferred industry, but its my second preferred. Which is alot more than i can say about eLearning.


Who knows, maybe im not cut out to be an animator, and ive just been kidding myself this whole time. Maybe website programming is my call and im just trying to deny it. I generally think the work ive done for animation has been some pretty good stuff, especially for the little amount of training i ever got with the subject, and how green i still am about it all. I still get compliments all the time from random people and people i know alike,

i dunno, im a little 'lost with a sense of direction' if that makes any sense whatsoever.

maybe ill continue to work on my machinima projects on the side...

I has new PeeEssPee Game

Picked me up a little "Star Ocean First Departure" at EB during my break today and deicded to celebrate over a burger and coke at A&W.

While i was munching away thinking about how much fun im going to have visiting an RPG i never got to play that exists as an upgraded version part 1 of my absolute favorite RPG series to date, i decided to crack open the manual (of course ditching the French version). I was surprised to see, an actual instruction booklet. Opening it up it explained all gameplay mechanics, button layout hotsheets, a registration form to Squenix, and, hold on to your hats: Character Profiles.
Seriously people, THIS is how you do an instruction manual! This is packaging for games 101.

now i know some game sout there (mostly RPGs) still feature such things, but i never felt compelled to browse the thin instruction manual to Tales of Vesperia, and only to see 2 little character profiles for Yuri and Repede and basic explanations as to what may entail in the game.

can we seriously go back to doing what we used to do with Instruction manuals? i mean i know Game Design 201 is all about being able to tell the player everything intuitively while playing the game and i can understand not wanting to spoil something or details to early, but these make great reading material for those who dont have interest in Books. Back story of events leading up to the game itself, profiles, weapon data, monsters, all of this information USED to exist, but much like the Health Bar since Halo, its gone the way of the dodo in place of manuals consisting entirely of how to put the disc in the tray and turn it on.

Anyways, im stoked to play me some Star Ocean.

Oh and im about halfway through The Brotherhood on Saints Row 2 now. Ronin and Sons of Somedi have already met utter defeat.

Immmm BAAAAAaaaack!

So as you may (or may not have noticed) my domain name expired, therefor i couldn't do anything with the site till that was renewed. While it could have been attended to and dealt with quicker, better now than if my domain expired for too long and some ad company snatched it up. Much like my beloved blackjaguarstudios.com :( R.I.P.


So after all is said and done, i now have a place i can stash my thoughts.

Also dont forget that my DeviantArt is my home on the internet, this being just a random place for random things for me to jot down when im bored.


So, E3 is coming back to normal eh? About bloody time i must say. After 2 full years of being the joke of the industry, and the punching bag for everyone on the internet, i guess it would be smart to bring back what wasn't broke in the first place.
They originally scaled it down because small developers were whining their asses off about not getting enough coverage comapred to the bigger companies, so the board members went and cut down all but media access and choice developers. What resulted was a snore fest and the smaller copanies STILL getting no coverage.
All for naught m'afraid.
Heres to a happy June '09 when we welcome back the giant party and celebration it used to be! *raises glass*
I hope by the time it rolls around ill have established myself as someone important enough to qualify entrance past the bouncers, going to LA in June would be sweet, and then over to Pittsburge for AnthroCon in July. Thatd be intense... if anything i guess i just watch GameSpot and GameTrailers again for my coverage of E3. Not IGN, god no, im not willing to poison myself over not going and im not that desperate.


on another note, Ben Croshaw is still awesome.

oh ya and this is pretty badass i must say

Allow me to share something

a conversation i was having with Sighness just now

---

Sighness:
XD

Sighness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCD9TwLrVs&feature=related

Sighness:
It's really old bu ya...PS3 one looks kinda bad haha

DJDarkViper:
you know this kid sorta bothers me
in his vid
he complained about ther ebeing NO upscaling filters at all to smoothen out the graphics

Sighness:
hehe

DJDarkViper:
"PS1/PS2 upscaling in 1.80! But it's not REAL upscaling. Why? Cause the polygons themselves aren't rendered in high def, the entire image output is just put through a filter to make it look upscaled. The same method is used for upscaling DVD picture quality to 720p/1080i/1080p."
yet he writes this

Sighness:
Haha

DJDarkViper:
so complains about there being no filter, complaints when there is a filter
damned if ya do, damne dif ya dont

Sighness:
XD

DJDarkViper:
god i hate people so much
and really

Sighness:
Hahah

DJDarkViper:
its mostly jsut people on the internet i hate so much
all a bunch of squabbling smacktards

DJDarkViper:
because people have noticed
that people react more positively to negative outbursts and crying, than people who raise valid points or have something nice to say

DJDarkViper:
id like to bring up the fact that if this were Ghostbusters 2.
Well

Sighness:
....I wasn't up for Ghost Busters 2 >_>.

DJDarkViper:
i dont think i need to eplain where this would be going XD
.............but youd seen and understoof Ghsotbusters 2 right?

Sighness:
Ya and didn't like it

DJDarkViper:
well regardless thats not my ponit

Sighness:
XD

DJDarkViper:
the giant amalgomous blog was made of pure hatrid and angriness

DJDarkViper:
and that was just New York
imagine if it spawns from The Internet
world would probably be consumed, twice over
take this kid for the very instance

DJDarkViper:
he has in his possession, a gaming machine with which the word has yet to match in terms of power and functionality. THis thing will literally allow you to do anything to it, including throwing a whole new OS onto it, no problem. It supports memory cards, HUGE hard drive, built in wireless, and the whole nine yards
anything and everything youd EVER want out of a gaming console
and if your lucky enough to get it, even BC for older games

DJDarkViper:
and all this kid does, is exploit the fact Sony didn't put a blur filter to smooth out the jaggies?
Give me, a fucking break.

Sighness:
XD

DJDarkViper:
Backwards Compatability, is a gift, not a privilage.

Sighness:
Indeed

DJDarkViper:
There was no BC for the NEs on the SuperNES, right? >_>

DJDarkViper:
in fact, PS2 did the same shit to PS1 games as the PS3 does to PS2 games. The graphics look worse, because its emulation

Sighness:
I didn't notice much...

DJDarkViper:
the point is, you have a new machine than can play your old shit haha

Sighness:
X)

DJDarkViper:
if its graphics you care about, get a PS3 game, you play a retro game for its gameplay

Houston? We have a Crysis!

Hey everyone,

so i finally ran out and grabbed Crysis, for a particular reason which i wont get into right now, id prefer this news be just a little more solid before i say anything further. For better or worse ill divulge what im talking about in a week or so

Also, Kane and Lynch is actually a really good game. Bought it ages back, never bothered with it. Installed it on a whim of boredom, and i couldn't shut it off. Sure its got its faults, but it does so many things well they're easy to forgive,a nd never cripple the experience.

I also reinstalled XFire, http://www.xfire.com/profile/kyle1986/
Ive been updating with screenshots and videos, ill post some here

first he vids:
http://www.xfire.com/video/2d08c/ < Kane and Lynch: Swatting an Noisy Fly
http://www.xfire.com/video/2dc06/ < Crysis: a Real Long Sleep
http://www.xfire.com/video/2dc08/ < Crysis: Rambo Style


and now some choice screenies

The new place

last night was a busy one, i dont even recall doing very much but heres how it goes:
1. Watched the last half of Season 2 of The Office (us version)
2. Drove, from K-town to Westbank to Summerland to Westbank again
3. Dismantled my entire room
4. Reassembled in a new location
5. Hotrigged and retrofitted all things up now called "The Entertainment Center", i have all my consoles hooked up and ready to play at a given moments notice:
- Sega Genesis
- Sega Saturn
- Sega Dreamcast
- Super Nintendo
- Nintendo Wii
- Sony Playstation 3
- Microsoft Xbox 360

its pretty sweet, now i jsut gotta get this damne duniversal remote powered up via some sweet sweet AAA action in order to get the Input button to work to enter AV cable display mode :p


aside form the living arranges are actually pretty fucking sweet, theres not much more i can really say other than: YES! Peace and Quiet!

im about to play some S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear SKy when i get home, but first i gotta lay down some carpet :)

LMAO

This is just too awesome LOL
id eat here, ALL the time!

A first time for anything part 2

The deed is done. My good friend Ryan has finally gotten himself a wife, the lovely Christine. They're actually a good couple and everytime i see them together (which admittedly isn't exactly often) the chi flows smoothly.

The wedding was very nice, i showed up directly at 10 to 3 (the wedding started at 3) and had enough time to find a seat before watching the hour long ceremony. Watching my friend become married was an experience. But the moment he said "i do" to his new wife, it hit me like a sledgehammer in the chest, not because i was emotional about the whole thing (its the manly thing to say while i sit here and blog at 12AM), but because it made me realize, thats pretty much exactly what i want to.
--TANGENT--
Ive never actually understood why men get cold feet when it comes to marriage, ive never understood why an adult male becomes so freaked out at the thought of a wife and kids, i guess its just me. Ive always wanted that, ever since i was a kid. That being said, im a giant chicken when it comes to conversing with prospective women. I dunno it jsut happens, i struggle to find somehting to say, awkward silence happens, and suddenly im boring the other person to death. I want to meet a nice gamer chick who is also single. Ive met plenty of gamer chicks and always find the conversations entertaining, but theyre never single. Oh well, ill find something soon.
--/TANGENT--

So after the wedding were told the reception time and place and i think "This woujld eb a perfect time to run home and blog about what jsut happened" of course id be locked out of my house so i decided to meander around Penticton instead. Grabbed me an Ice Capp and travelled all around place. I know with these gas prices its getting harder and harder to jsutify cruising, but i didn't care, it felt nice. Eventually i found my way by the mall, and i saw the PetCetera store to my left, so i thought id go check out the dogs for adoption area. Of course its jsut cats, im told i need to go to the SPCA to see the dogs. And of course theyd be closed on a Sunday, oh well. So i ran to the Mall and went to CDPlus and found the new Disturbed album, i dunno, nothing about the contents of the CD has stood out to me so far, but then i was barely paying attention. I was too busy daydreaming about owning a dog for myself, and traveling around with them in the car (as i see everyone else frickin doing, sparking the day dreaming).
I went o the mall again to kill off the remaining hour of wait, and i found my way to EB games. Lookin sharp in my new jeans, hair, sunglasses, etc. I picked up the PS3 controller and played Battlefiled Bad Company. The WHOLE time im playing this beast, these three kids on a bench about 17 feet away, stood there. Occassionally i could hear them cough out "PS3" and a loud "I WANNA PLAY THE PS3". All the while im rolling my eyes. Im not gonna give it up if they think whining about it or giving not so subtle hints behind my back is going to win them. So i kept playing, and they kept wining. Fourty-Five minutes pass of course, and theyre STILL behind me. Ill give em kudos for determination. So while im totally not doing the right thing in BFBC and im being all sneaky and accurate and doing the game on Hard with ease, i finally set a bomb off undernethe me to set me back to the checkpoint, (on purpose) and put the controller down. I then start walking away and i see the kids run up to it. First thing i hear is "how do i play this" meanwhile the fucktard jumped on the SECOND controller port.
Fucking. N00bs.
So i stood and watched and it was a trainwreck, but i couldn't continue laughing ast their shitty performance any longer, i had to go to the reception. So i told the kid "to blow up a wall, stand next to it and fire a rocket at it" promptly killing himself, i laughed and left.

At the reception, i was a little shakey, stiff, and nervous. I was at a party where i knew NO ONE but the groom, the wife, and the grooms good friend (and my friend) Joe. Thats it. Everyone else was a new face to me.
So naturally im a little intimidated, i wanna meet some people and have a good time but i cant muster up the gumption to do anything about it. Eventually this Jeff guy beside me noted theres a bar right beside us, and because the reception was to be alcohol free, we decided to make a getaway to the Bar for a drink and return back. I followed, i met up with my good friend Pierre Smirnoff, had a good time, and made my way back to the reception. The drink, loosened me up something fierce. I wasn't drunk, nor wa si in a haze, i just felt alot more confident about my actions and how little i cared about what others thought. Now i knew i needed to drive home so i stopped drinking right then and there and since ive been gulping down Water like were running out of it tommorrow or something.
Danced, talked it up, made a fool out of myself once or twice in small concentrated groups, got some nice shots with Joe and Ryan,, and i stayed till the end of the party.

Ok, that last part has some significance. To anybody who has ever partied with ME, knows i have a nasty habbit of cutting out early. And for various reasons but msotly jsut caus eim not necessarily feeling it. Im not club hopper, i dont go to bars very often, and even house parties i go to bed early at. Im not a partier (which also explains why i dont exactly know how to chat up random women :p), so i always duck out. I stayed til the end opf this one, and i wont lie, i even thought about going home around 10PM, but then somethin happened: i realized i was having fun, so i didn't cut out at my projected time. Instead i left when i realized everyone else had left, and i said my congrats and 'seeyalaters' to Ryan and Christine.

In short, it was a good day for sure.



Man its so crazy, my friend is married... i still dont know what to think about that lol. Oh well.

Conratulations Ryan and Christine! Congratulations :) and thanks for a wonderful night from me :)


-k

A first time for Anything

Later today, im about to witness one thing i didn;t actually expect to be doing for at least another few years. But here it is.

No one would know that im talking about a good friend of mines Wedding. I never blogged about it or really talked about it in any sense because i still cant beleive its happening. Even as i sit her ein my chair, im oblivious to how my friend is feeling right now because, well, ive never had to do this before.
Im not actually DOING anything thee, im purly just a witness on Ryans side. But im still nervous as hell. Why is that?

Anyways i gotta get to Kelowna sometime this morning to pick up my dress shirt (or buy a new one) and tie.

I still cant beleive it, one of my friends is getting married. The first one as well (if you havent gathered that already). Thisll be an interesting experience for all of us involved i think.

Well Ryan, ill see ya at the ceremony :) . Ill blog about how it went, because i know ill be looking for things to note about, being as i dont have an actual Camera to my name >_>

Oy'vey

Well i planned on getting down and dirty with some Maya based Animation last night right after work.

Course not.

I managed to figure out one issue ive been having since day 1 in maya 2008 thats been really holding me back, and deleted some poses that are either way to early in the animation and arent called for, or are just too goofy for the mood, oh well, under my own discretion i deleted em anyways. Thats about it.

Im not THAT easily distracted its when everyone else wants to do things around me and i get sucked into it, usually by will. Ive resisted numerouos times walking downstairs just to play some brawl, ive resisted going to movies, ive resisted going to the bar for Wings and other fun activities to try and remain productive. But, it jsut never frickin turns out that way regardless. I can almsot pinpoint the moments when my day is shot for productivity.

Maybe when the roommates are primarily in Vancouver this week i can get something done...

I wanna see if i can get some stuff done tonight, i at l;east want to get the conductor segment done, or the wink segment... either way i want to get this intro sequence out the door :(


-k

My FireFox 3.0 Extensions Recommendations

With the official release of FireFox3.0, its about time to discuss, extensions.
Back in the beta, not alot of these extensions were compatible, thanks to some serious changes in the inner workings of the browser and how it handled these marvelous plugins.
So now ive made sure to grab the best of my favorite and gie them a proper run in Firefox3.0 to see if they work, and gladly, not only do most of them work now (as of today) but msot have gone through GREAT improvements in functionality and UI tweaks.

there are a few extensions which really stand out to me, and make my life jsut an awesome ball of awesome. So i wish to share with you my ABSOLUTE favorite standouts. Here goes:

1. FlashGet
ok you got me, this isn't technically a "Firefox extension" its a standalone program that works with Firefox. The fact its a download manager, accelerator, AND highly competant Torrent client is not the onyl claims to fame, if you hilight a URL and Copy it using Ctrl+C to your clipboard, itll send the URL directly to FlashGet to queue up and download. Oh ya, highlight entire block listings of address URLs the same way, and press Ctrl+C once, and itll queue everything up, in order.
Makes RapidShare downloading a snap.

2. DownThemAll
Built in Download Manager and Accelerator for FireFox, works pretty flawlessly, and quickly. Ive downlaoded 400MB objects in a minute or two. DTAoneClick is a nice feature that takes the last directory you saved your last file to, and and downloads to that in one shot.

3. FireFTP
Ive always applauded how useful FireFTP is. But v0.99 that came with the release of FF3.0, is jsut GODLY now. Now equipped with UI functionality tweaks, and better connection stability, i can now properly pimp out one of my favorit efeatures: On Site Editing. With < 0.98, you right click on a file on the server side and choose "Open wtih..." and chose your favorite editor which you add manually tot he list via options menu. itll make a copy to your temp int files and open it in your editor, make you change, save, and click "Uplaod" in the floating window.
NOW, with 0.99, all you have to do is Right Click the file and open with your favorite editor, as per said before. But now theyve cut out the middle man of pressing the "Upload" button and now just uploads when you press Ctrl+S to save. genius. Now i no longer have to micromanage 50 floating upload buttons LOL

4. FoxyTunes
its almost like a built in media player in FireFox. But instead it jsut controls your existing media players, which theres ALOT of comaptability for. For that extra hit of discretion, they hide your media player and make it look liek FoxyTunes is the only show in town. The added bonus is when you close FireFox, it wont stop the music, your media player jsut shows up again continuing where you left off, awesome!

5. PicLens
OMG, this is SO cool. its a Picture/Video browser thats compatible with some of my most common sites, DeviantArt and YouTube. It has to be seen to be beleived, but the plugin opens a new fully 3D window browser, and lets you seemlessly slide back and fourth across the RSS of the page, and gies you low resolution thumbnail views of what your about to see. Click on one, anywhere, and itll smoothly zoom in and start playing the video or downlaoding the higher rez image. you can browse to the actual page by clicking the "Globe" link under the pic. Its way to slick for words, seriously, just check it out.

6. ScribeFire
Im using this as we speak. Originally called "Performancing for FireFox" some thing happened an dnow their called ScribeFire, and thats totally cool with me. ScribeFire sounds better anyways.
So what is it? Its a blogging tool silly. It adds itself to your status bar as a golden page icon, and brings upa built in panel with all options imagineable to blog, including multiple account management and posting and.. like, EVERYTHING you could want, including a totally competant rich text editor.
in short: it kicks ass.

7. TwittyTunes
i only JUST starte dusing this totday, and its hilariously awesome. I click a button in the bottom right of my browser, and it talks with FoxyTunes to see which some im playing and with one more click i can tell the world what im listneing too. Or i can type in my own message no problem. Making it a competant built in Twitter aggitater.

8. TwitterFox
This pokes the Twitter server every couple minutes to see if your friends have posted anything and pops them up like MSN notifications, also allows you to reply to them in one shot too.
Awesome.


So theres a few, ill post later with links to each one. For now, jsut bring up the Add-ons window in FireFox and use the built in extension search for each of these and give them a proper shot. Who knows, you may just like them :D


Got any recommendations for me to try out? i lvoe screwing with Firefox, elt me know your favorite extensions or themes!

Unconventional

So of course id catch a LITTLE slack from my post yesterday regaridng Vista, and to be honest i was prepared for it. Bombarded with "So why should i upgrade" and i always gave the same response "You dont". I wasn't trying to convert or convince anyone to upgrade, i posted MY Top 10 Reasons Why IM Glad I Switched to Vista. "im" or references to my first person are listed upwards of 3 times in a single sentence. Why did i post it? A quick guide to the common question "AWWW! Vista?! Why?!" so now i just copy paste the link to them and be done with it.

ONTO other things:

Demo Reel work, seems whenever i get that touch of motivation i need, something come sup. Take yesterday for instance, i had an uncontrollable desire to leave work and open maya and finish the intro sequence to my demo reel, unfortunately a house party got thrown, and if that wouldn't have made it hard enough to concentrate, i got invited to see the new Hulk movie.
the hulk movie was awesome, but by the time i realized what was going on, it was 2AM, now im normally inclined to work on my stuff either direct early in the morning or really early in the morning, but alas, work @ 9 :\
I plan on doing some stuff tonight but i think tonight is when me and Jami are starting Metal gear 4 again, which is something vie waited longer than my schooling for, so in some twisted sense, this actually takes precedent for me.

WOW. Yeah i got on the WoWagon. Again. for the third time. I havent stopped but ive onyl been playing on and off now and then. Im lvl16 as of this morning, so im quite taking my time lol. this new "QuestHelper" mod my brother downloaded for me is already helping wonders, so, thanks to himi might not ave to waste so much time looking for obscene things for hours on end.

CourtEngine: Production has officially been ceased for more prospective projects, such as:

ShellEngine: This is a new project, using highly modified technology from CourtEngine to transform from a desktop application to a web authoring environment, details are secret, but its a BIG project. ©DigitalAG

not much else past this point,

later days


-k

(ps. The Weekenders is still an AWESOME cartoon)

My Top 10 Reasons I'm Glad I Switched to Vista

Normally id number these, but i like each of these features all the same.

- none of XPs Automatic updates requiring automatic Restarts
On way more than a bunch of occasions i left work with my computer locked so i can easily return to the job at hand i had to do, but upon returning, i could only gaze in awe as i see the blue Windows Login screen instead. Yup, XP had downloaded an update automatically, and then restarted my computer. Effectively killing off everything i had been doing the night previously.
Seriously, WHY? I cant understand why they force the restart so furiously, even when your ON the computer and it come sup, it never gives you the option to "Restart manually Later" instead it gives you a countdown to restart and your allowed to "delay" it a little bit longer. Balls.
- Integrated Search and Run built into Start Menu.
if your like me, you barely use the Windows Explorer to find your shit, as a tech nerd, you just KNOW where you've put your FunnyPix/ folder deep down in drive F somewhere, and thus find it easier to press Win+R and type in the path manually.
Now alls i have to do is click the windows logo as my start menu and type my path into "Search" and it'll do the same thing? even launch programs WITH parameters? Also allows me to look up key words for files and the start menu jsut starts listing shit with the same relative name As you type? frigging genius man!
- Voice Recognition. *
Ever have that dream of talking to your computer and itll do your shit for you automatically? well I have, shut up. So when i found out about Vistas buitl in Voice tool, allowing me to shout various commands to my computer via headset mic and allow me to write based on what it hears me say, i could write angry things to troll bait on youTube while pouring myself a cup o 'joe in the morning, or playing my Sega Saturn. Perfect!
* ok so its not exactly perfect, you should still run your voiced text by a Spell checker so you dont look like a retard online, cause online rep means everything you know.
- DirectX10.
OOHH i can hear the screaming OGL fanboys now "opengl is so much better" "directx is a plague upon which i can only wish upon my highschool bully", and still waiting on OGL3. Lets get something straight, i like OGL, and John Carmack is my alltime hero alright? But you have to admit, say you have an operating system which only allows OGL3 and all other OSs before it wont get it. Its that kind of empowering feeling that your 256x256 bumpmaps will look sharper and crisper, and thus have more meaning, then those other poor pitiful peasants with a color overlay of green, for envy. Plus as a 3D animator, ebing able to see real time shaders on my animated objects within my animation environment (XSI/Maya) is just hilariously cool (and useful).
- Pretty Interface
I use XP at work, and Vista at home. Both have high resolution LCD flatscreen monitors, and both have dual screen displays. Work has a decent graphics card 9we work with Flash here, no need for much bigger), and home has an 8800GT.
When i go home and work on Vista im greeted with the slick Aero interface, the transparent window borders which casually blur out anything behind them, and have that cool sheen effect when you move the windows, the glowy buttons, and black glass appeal, and the reworked Control Panel and other meaningful windows useful to geeks like me who care about this sort of thing. Its got a certain appeal, and while the Widgets may be a direct plagiarism to a certain other OS, they work and look nice.
When i get to work and see XP, its sort of demoralizing going from a serene and inspiring interface, to something that reminds me of blueberry bubblegum or children's playground Playskool plastics.
Don't get me wrong, XPs interface looks a hell of alot better than any other windows before it, im just saying, if your computer has the balls to do it properly, Aero whips the snot out of it.
- SP1
Ok I'll admit the first iteration of Vista was a balls experience, and i feel for those who did this and got permanently scarred and went backwards in time. but good things happen to those who wait and stick it out, and adapt to change every now and then. When Vista first came out, there was nothing compatible with it, but as time has progressed, almost everything worth anything is Vista compatible now. And now with Sp1, all those vanilla versions bugs seem to have magically disappeared. I urge anyone whos suffered through vanilla Vista to give SP1 a chance, cause while the minor annoyances still exist (UAC, just turn it off in your User management control panel), all the bugs and crashing issues seem to have.. calmly disappeared.
To put it shortly: Ive been running vista since SP1s release, i know its almost unheard of, but its NEVER crashed on me once, and i run that thing like its my bitch, and my friend who've witnessed me do this, can attest. Vista SP1, is very solid. If its crashing on you, your doing something wrong so stop visiting those porn sites, they only spell problems.
- Future Proof
Games for Windows Live. The fact some games already are Vista exclusive in OS compatibility, means the trend can only continue with all sorts of software. Sorry to those who wish to stick in the past with what they're used to, they're gonna miss on the next generation of PC titles/software. I could of course, be wrong about this, but i like to call it "Being prepared for the future" which is the exact reason i got a Quad core instead of a dual. its only a matter of time before all four cores will be used in gaming, but for right now, the cores do fine for Video rendering :)
Oh as for software compatability with older programs, sorry, i like to upgrade, shiny new things make me feel better about what im using (not that ALL upgrades are a good thing mind you, let us not forget about Adobe CS3 *shivers*)
- Plug and play, just works
yeah XPs got it and i believe so does 2000, but ive never seen it so flawlessly before. Plugging in all sorts of objects into a USB slot used to be a nightmare, as well as micromanaging and remember which USB slot i associated with various bits of hardware. For some reason with me, if i plugged my Webcam into a different USB slot than its used to, it'll require a reinstallation. Maybe i did something wrong or XPs just a bastard about figuring out that you just unplugged it from its normal slot 2 minutes ago.
I plugged in my MadCatz Xbox360 controller in, and in seconds its up and running and fully calibrated.
Mouse, Keyboard, Wireless Receiver, Webcam, every controller ic an hook up to it, etc. Ive never had to search for drivers myself. it just, heh, works!
- Inspiring
Whenever i sit in front of my computer at home running Vista Ultimate SP1, im inspired to do creative things, not just be lazy. More often than not im animating, or working in Flash, or screwing around in Photoshop putting mustaches on various Women and posting it to 4chan. Vista, if you'll allow it, can bring out your creative senses, and that in itself, just feels euphoric.
- Windows 7.
Its a little early to be talking about the next iteration of Windows. But to anyone who's seen the vids of it, know what it is: Vista on steroids and with Wingardium Leviosa cast upon it (don't cry Harry Potter fans, i dont read it). Win7 looks like vista, acts like vista, but its gigabytes smaller, and has better features, and supposedly compatible with everything. Plus being able to natively run a build of any previous version of windows for TRUE backwards compatibility, just rocks! Now you CAN have your cake, and eat it too!


im not here to change your mind about vista, honestly, i use what i want to use because the fraction of reasons listed above, appeal to me greatly. But this should answer the string of questions i get constantly on "Vista? WHY?!?!". now i at least have a link i can send those bastards.

Is there anything i dont like about vista? of course: its a memory and resource hog, it kills off any Dualboot you may have hoped to have (it likes to try and be your one and only true love), and Aero Lite looks like ass. Theres many others but nothing can be perfect, right? Even MGS4 has its flaws.

Thank you and good night.

OH speaking of high speculation: check this out


mmm Smexy.


-k

LOL MGS4 LOL

Ok so to understand how weird this sounds, let me divulge a few small facts:

1. Im a HUGE fan of counter-terrorism and stealth
2. the entire MGS series while tactical and espionage and always good, always had poor control mechanics when it came to shooting
3. I still play the crap out of Vegas2 for its near perfect cover mechanics and excelelnt blend of shooting controls and precision
4. Game sliek Splinter Cell i eat up
5. i still like my action games like GRAW and COD4
6. im a sucker for graphics
7. i play paintball to get that tactical feel out in real life without getting myself killed for real.

So, with this in mind:

We got MGS4 and waited till around 5:30 to order some pizza, pop the game in, and get everyone in gear for some Metal gear Action. For some reason we decided on Big Boss Hard Mode initially and without knowing the controls, lol.
So we blast through the cinematics, and some gameplay segments, i got to shoot a few dudes, and i felt instantly dissapointed that i had no silencer, but whatever, i can work with what i got.
The soldiers must have superior fucking sight because they can see me way before i even get the chance to see them. But anyways, thats MGS for ya.

So i was invited upstairs to see a website while Jami and Peter took over, being on hard mdoe and seeing how they were doing previous to my leaving, i dind't honestly expect ALOT of progress, maybe a little, but still. What i saw captivated me. Good airsoft guns, are finally legal in these here parts. And whats better, were finding some good guns for nice prices.
So me and Cole started fantasizing about buying which guns for what price, which attachments to throw on, our strategies and positions, and even what tactical gear we wante dto buy, and tried to get a couple others in on this too.

To be honest: i COMPLETELY forgot about MGS4 going on downstairs. It wasn't until i was told that they made some serious progress and ive missed pivitol plot points, that, i couldn't bring myself to go back down and play it. Id be lost, and i want the full experience in order.

So anyways, im so far a go for this AirSoft malarky, and i need to start a new file on MGS4 to play through lol.

Sorry Kojima...

*pure extacy*

4 little words: se eif you can peice them together
Gear, Solid, Metal, Four

ill give ya a hint: its Metal Gear Solid 4.