Teen Tech

Ok, so I wake up in the morning without the faintest idea about what to write. This little fact brings me to the summer. I may be a computer Uber Geek and barely spends any time outside, but I still go to work at Camp Tapico. It is a boyscout camp, but the fact is that I’m away from any internet enabled computer for about 7.5 weeks. Last year when I went, none of my friends thought that I would last a week. I didn’t think that I would last a week. But the fact is, I really didn’t think that much about computers. I got my daily dosage of computers from the computer that we used in the camp store where we did our inventory. Also, my boss, who is a fourth grade school teacher and about as old as my dad (:D) plays computer games. On the days that were slow in the store, we would play Myst V or some other point and click game. I couldn’t believe it when she started up her computer and I saw more game icons than on my own computer. It turned out to be a great summer and I plan to go back up to camp this summer to do another 8 weeks. During this time, I will pre-write all of my posts, then probably have my dad post them for me during the time that I am away.

Here’s my whole take on cheating on video games. Some cheating is good, some is bad. If you just get a game and have yet to beat it, then it is bad. You are not going to get the full enjoyment out of the game if all you do is cheat. Take my brother for instance, he has a game that he has not beaten yet, and he is already cheating using the time based events to get “money”. Every new years (real time in this game) he gets 10,000 currency. He keeps resetting the clock in the game back to new years to get the money. He claims that this is not cheating, but he is misusing the game’s engine for gain.   On the other hand, if you have beaten the game and you want to try something new, then cheating is fine by me.  An example of this would be any of the Grand Theft Auto games.  If you beat it, then want to go through with a different weapon set or change your clothes to look like a chicken, then great.  Just, use your best judgement.

In the news, there has been some studies on the Wii and its ability to keep kids healthy. Kids who play the Wii burn more calories. It is actually a good cardiovascular work out which burns on average 30 - 40 % more calories!!! In my opinion, any system that can help loose weight while having fun playing it is worth whatever the cost. Oh, Speaking of games that help people loose weight, “Dance Dance Revolution: Universal Bundle” Comes out for the XBox 360 on the 27th of this month. So, keep your eyes peeled for that.

First off, what is a LAN Party? A network where people bring their computers over and play networked computer games. So, what is the Old Skool LAN?  The Old Skool LAN is a local LAN party that I arrange where we play Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Counterstrike, and sometimes some Half-Life. The official website for the LAN is http://lan.tech-works.info. LAN parties often have prizes, called swag, given by corporate sponsors. I’ve had ATI, fUnc (makers of custom gaming mousepads), and nVidia. One LAN party last year was even supplied with gourmet hand-made pizzas from the Frog Leg Inn in Erie. So, these parties are a ton of fun. Some pictures for the LAN party that made the Picture of the Day at LANParty.com are here and here. The next LAN will probably be held within one to two months, so head out to the site and check it out.

Well, I’ve had a rough week with tech support.  I recieved a 512 MB Lexar Secure II JumpDrive for Christmas.  It’s broken.  The drive shows up as having 0 MB storage space, and Windows recognizes it as a completely different device now.  I chatted with Lexar tech support for about an hour before they told me that my Flash Drive was malfunctioning.  Duh.  I got my RMA information and mailing labels and now, the person I got the drive from lost the reciept.  Without the reciept, I can’t send it back and they won’t honor the warranty.  So, now I’m left with a dead flash drive that can’t be replaced without buying another one.

In other tech support news  here’s a story of how a mom had a problem with her son’s Nintendo Wii drive getting louder, and they just told her to bring it on down to Nintendo and fixed it in about half an hour and not 2 weeks with normal RMA.

Well, school’s closed “Due to Weather.” What does this mean for me? I get 7 hours to work on my various projects. It has come to my attention that my school has spent approximately 10,000$ on some website that does online quizzing, and that’s only the renewal fee. That has prompted me to make my own site that does online quizzing for a lot cheaper. The current URL is http://tech-works.info/edunation. As you can see, It’s far from done. Quite a few of the links don’t work and pages don’t exist, and you can’t save any quizzes, but hey, I’ve been working on it since Saturday, so I’m going pretty fast on this project. I will probably also play some minesweeper and do some chores around the house, so, school cancellations are not just fun and games, but I do utilize the time.

Vista is full of cool stuff. Little things to make your PC life more fun and productive. Ok, so here’s a few of the cool changes in Vista over XP. Vista added sounds and animations to the Solitaire and Minesweeper games. I usually turn the sounds off, but the animations are kind of cute. They probably redesigned some of the other games, but these are the ones that I play on a regular basis. Another thing is a native chess game. Titans Chess 3D is a great chess game that can be challenging, but fun with great 3-dimensional graphics.

Windows Sidebar and Gadgets. This is a sidebar on your screen that can be filled with gadgets like the old 15-puzzle with the pieces that slide, to a notepad, and current weather. These are customizable with a ton more to download at www.microsoftgadgets.com. And now standard with Windows and Windows Update, you get the new Internet Explorer 7 with the new phishing filter. More to come with Vista.

OK, everyone gets overworked about stuff at least once in a while. Right now, I feel spread a little thin, but I can pull through. My first project is to maintain my network at Vo-Tech (http://www.lisd.us/votech/). There, I am in the Computer Information Services program, and maintaining that network is an all day job. Sometimes, I’ve brought stuff home and worked on it for hours, days at a time. In May, I will be doing a segment in one of my former teacher’s classes (Web Design II). This segment will be all about programming. I am going to have the class make a 3D game where I do a lot of the work, but they still learn the basics. That in itself is a lot of work where I am converting from one programming language to another by hand. (For those wondering, I’m porting C# to VB.NET). On top of this, I have to keep my grades up. On the side, I manage tecumsehneckandback.com and backalleycycles.net and tech-works.info (my un-finished personal site). So, I’m like a busy, busy bee, jumping from project to project sometimes not finishing what I’ve started, but that’s life as a Teen Tech for you.

OK, so about two months ago, I attempted to upgrade the graphics card in my stepmom’s computer.  Things went wrong very quickly.  First, the computer would run, but the graphics stuff was extremely fast.  That was relatively fine for about two weeks.  Then when trying to install a game, the computer kept restarting, and eventually wouldn’t start back up again.  At first, the computer just didn’t see that Windows was installed.  Then after a while,  it would just beep for a bit then shut down.  I tried everything I knew of to try to fix it, short of taking everything out of the case.  Well, this weekend after about a month and a half of it not working, I did just that.  I opened up the computer case laying everything out in the living room.  The case was completely empty except for the power supply.  I cleaned in it where necessary because dust can be a big factor in a computer overheating and not functioning.  After that, I proceeded to put everything back in, double checking all the connections as I went.  After that was done, I plugged everything back into the back of the computer (stuff like the mouse, keyboard, and monitor), and I fired it up.  The darn thing worked the first time.  I installed the wireless network, and people were playing Age Of Empires (Microsoft Corporation) within an hour of having it in a perfect working condition.  Well, that’s my success story for the weekend.

Well, I have to say that after running the Release Candidate for Vista for about three months, this new addition to the Microsoft Windows family is excellent. With multiple versions to pick from, such as Ultimate, Home Premium, Home Basic, Business, and Enterprise, there is a version out there for you. There will be some compatibility issues at the start, but they should be ironed out in time. Great for games, this operating system looks like it came straight from a sci-fi movie, and not from Microsoft. With Prices starting at 99.99 for Home Basic, the price is hard to beat. Check it out at http://www.microsoft.com/vista/

This might sound like an advertising speech, but let me assure you, it’s not. Vista is the future of Windows, and in about five years, I expect Windows XP to start phaseing out. It is great for video, photos, music, and games. It’s just a great Operating System that doesn’t even need a geek to install