Scott David Brown's Blog, page 5

An Apple A Day…

Apple is having their Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week and the big news is the plethora of updates coming to their operating system platforms this fall. Check out iDropNews for all of the latest updates from the conference. There wasn’t any new hardware presented at the keynote address on Monday, but it’s likely we will see upgraded Apple devices coming by the end of the year. A new iPhone is pretty much guaranteed and hopefully an update to the Apple Watch.

What I’m really looking forward to with the new software updates is the ability to unlock a MacBook with the Apple Watch. Hopefully the iPhone will be added to that at some point. Also, Siri is coming to Mac finally (I admit I don’t use Cortana on my PC, but I do on my Xbox).

The best thing about these new updates is that they will be free to owners of Apple computers and devices. It’s wonderful! Of course, some older Apple devices will not be upgradeable to the new software. This is usually because of hardware limitations. Thankfully, my MacBook Pro 2011 model is still upgradeable, and hopefully that will be true for many more years to come.

 

The Right to Life and Love

Photo taken from The Christian Science Monitor

If we could all just learn to love each other despite our differences, this world would be a better place. You don’t even have to agree with someone on anything to love them as a human being. When someone uses violence out of fear and hate against love, the community at large tends to come together. While terrorism can succeed in leading to change, usually what happens is we come together. The best way to fight terrorism is to not give in to it. Continue to live your life in defiance. The greatest revenge is to live well.

Conan O’ Brian made a statement last night about gun violence and the terrible shooting Sunday morning in Florida at Club Pulse. (Click here to donate to the victims of the shooting). He gave support to a ban on assault weapons. Once again the debate over gun control is at the forefront. Many of us have deep emotions and opinions about guns. Hopefully as a nation we can finally have that civil and productive conversation about gun violence, instead of what we usually have, a lot of shouting. Maybe we can actually do something significant about gun violence. I’m not holding my breath, but I still have hope.

Saying that guns are not part of the problem is frustrating to me. I understand that many are afraid of losing the second amendment, but that is highly unlikely to ever happen. What we can do is ban military style weapons. They aren’t designed for civilian use and I’m sure law enforcement agencies would be happy to have them gone. I get that there are a lot of people who want to have a gun to defend themselves, but you don’t need an AR 15 to do that. Usually when we have this conversation it feels like one side care more about guns than human life. Is that fair? Maybe not, but I’d comes off that way.

I feel a personal connection to the LGBTQ community. While I am heterosexual, when I was a kid, the other children often called me offensive names, like homo, fag, gay, etc. I questioned my own sexuality for many years after that before I realised I was straight. While I don’t pretend to know what it is like to be LGBTQ, I try to empathize. I’d like the LGBTQ community to know that I support them. We mat never see a time where this type of violence will cease to be, but we can hope. Love trumps hate.

 

Falling Back Into Fallout

My bear friend helping me take out some mercenaries

One of the most fun games at the end of the oughts (2000s) was Fallout 3. It was the first game in the series that I ever played, never knowing about the originals when I was a kid. Playing as the Lone Wonderer was so much fun and I made a lot of digital friends. I eventually bought the Fallout collection on Steam and got my first taste of the series. Fallout 1 and take place in Southern California and Fallout Vegas is a wink and a nod to the old games.

I first played Fallout 3 on PS3 and it was the first time I ever earned “trophies,” what Sony calls achievements. I had to play the game all over again to collect them all, but I didn’t mind one bit. There’s something about a game where you can just explore on your own and don’t have to follow the main quest line in a static way.

In 2010 I switched to Steam and it was time to earn all of the achievements again. This time I was stuck with the Games for Windows Live setup, which is now defunct. I was able to get most of the achievements, but as I tend to do, I stopped playing a while as other games distracted me. When GfWL ended, so did my CD Key for Steam, such was the case for anyone with the game. The sad thing about that was I could no longer earn the remaining achievements, or so I thought. Thankfully, there is a work around, as most of the old GfWL games work with each others keys. The downside is that you can only use them three times before the key becomes worthless.

We’ve all had those days

Many of those old Windows titles have switched over to Steam now. Red Faction Guerrilla became a Steam Edition, which means achievements transfer over and some games allow you to make your own mods too. While Fallout 3 is still stuck as a Windows Live title, you don’t have to sign in to the service anymore to play. You still have to download the Windows Live game client though.

On Windows 10, Fallout 3 runs pretty well, though it does crash on occasion. Such is the way the game was programmed. One of the reasons I decided to switch to PC for Elder Scrolls and Fallout games was to avoid game breaking bugs. At least on the PC you can always fix any problems you have yourself, like getting stuck, or is there’s a missing NPC somewhere.

Despite the technical issues the game has, it’s still quite fun, and when there is a problem it’s a minor thing. Yesterday I finished The Pitt, the last DLC I had left to play. Then it was time to clean out the slavers at Paradise Falls followed by completing the last mission I had left, Tenpenny Tower.

Now the only thing left to do is finish my last two achievements: finding the bobble heads and killing the super mutant behemoths. I’ll just be wondering around the Capital Wasteland for a little bit longer, finishing things up and checking out the locations I’ve never been to. I’ll have my trusty companion Charon and Dogmeat, my dog, with me. It’s going to be bitter sweet when it’s all over.

Even once I’m done being the Lone Wonderer, at least I’ll be able to play as The Courier, since I own the deluxe edition of Fallout Vegas. There are some fun times in that game, and I sure do love hardcore mode. However, there is just something about wondering around Maryland and Pennsylvania, and exploring the D.C. ruins, that is unlike any other Fallout game. Several aspects of the game are based on our real history, but seeing the monuments, learning about the fictitious historical events in the game, it feels very patriotic.

Soon I’ll be saying goodbye to the Capital Wasteland, a place unlike any other. Where else can you listen to Three Dog, the last journalist, telling the Wasteland about the latest news on Galaxy News Radio? Nowhere, and I imagine that he will never stop fighting the good fight, even when I’ve moved to Vegas.

Performing Surgery on MacBook Pro

I’m a techie, and I know hardware. I’ve been building computers for most of my life. A few years ago I thought I’d give that up and instead buy designer computers. It started with the first MacBook Pro that I bought myself, extended to my Alienware m17x laptop, and for a while I thought I was done messing with the insides of computers. Well, I ended up upgrading the Alienware laptop’s video card myself and eventually replaced that laptop with an Alienware x51, a portable desktop PC. I’ve done my fair share upgrading parts in it.

I’m happy with my PC for gaming, but I still used a Mac Mini for work. However, that computer was just too slow for me, so I gave it to my mom (she didn’t have a working computer) and took back the MacBook Pro I had bought back in 2011. It wasn’t working, and it was in pretty bad shape. I was able to get it to boot and reinstalled OS X. I was amazed how fast it was compared to my Mini even though it was 5 years older (to be fair, the MacBook Pro has a faster processor).

While it was nice to have a laptop again, there were a few things I wanted to change:

The first thing I did was swap out the original hard drive with my Crucial 500gb solid state drive. It was a simple to do and it really sped up the laptop. I can boot up in about 7 seconds give or take. I also added what I’d guess to be about 2 hours of battery life, the best reason to put one in a laptop. Less power is a good thing, in this case.
After that, I soon realized that I no longer had the Handoff feature and AirDrop didn’t work with newer devices. That’s because the wireless card in my MacBook Pro had Bluetooth 2.0. For the features I was missing you need the 4.o standard. Thankfully Bluetooth 4.0 came out a year to two after my model was manufactured and I discovered that I could replace my old wireless card with one that has Bluetooth 4.0. It took a little bit more effort to replace than the hard drive and I had to “hack” my computer to get it to work, but now I have the full function of AirDrop, Handrop, and Instant Hotspot (that’s going to be nice when I travel).
Today I did something more drastic, I replaced the upper and lower case on my MacBook Pro. My brother had dropped the laptop when I gave it to him a few years ago. There was a severe dent where the battery indicator button was and the case was scratched up and dented in other places. I was happy to find a replacement are at a fair price, but I had to dismantle the computer. Every part had to be disconnected. You can see my handy work in the photos.

The whole process took me several hours since it was my first time taking the whole thing apart. It was fun, with a few frustrating moments. Thankfully I didn’t seem to damage anything, and my tinkering was a success. Now I feel like I have a brand new MacBook Pro.

As you can see it still works.[image error] There are only three features that I’m missing: USB 3.0, Force Touch, and the Retina display. I COULD get those features on my MacBook Pro by adding external devices. For the USB ports, there’s an adapter that plugs in my thunderbolt port that can give me USB 3.0 ports. The Apple Magic Track Pad 2 is an external pad that has the force touch technology. It allows additional functions that are similar to the iPhone’s 3D touch. Finally, I could buy an external Apple monitor that has the retina display technology in it, but that’s too expensive!

For a company that isn’t known for having upgradable computers, I really lucked out with this laptop! The best part is that now I should be happy with this computer for years to come. And I got to spend some time playing Mac doctor.

History Happened Again

At the end of the Democrat primary in 2008, then Senator Obama became our nominee, I was a Hillary supporter. I and many of my fellow supporters reached a point when we knew she wasn’t going to be the nominee. Of course we didn’t want to accept it, but it was the reality. Disappointment slowly crept in, and there was anger for some of us too.

I wasn’t angry, more sad. I was also worried about the potential of a fractured Democratic party. Could be come together? Would Obama be able to get Clinton voters? The answer was, yes. Boy what a relief it was too!

Barack Obama was and still is a charismatic figure and that helped him in the long run. However, Hillary went to bat for him and convinced most of us to vote for now President Obama. Looking back, I’m glad that I voted for him the first time and that I was able to play a role in getting him elected the second time around, both as an intern for the Democratic Party of Orange County and by voting for him that November.

Now Bernie supporters are where I was in 2008. I feel for them. It’s not a fun experience. I know about the bitterness, anger, and sad feelings that sometimes result. I don’t wish that on anyone.

I believe Bernie Sanders will ultimately be seen as having a positive effect on the Democratic party and his supporters should feel proud. Bernie deserves mad props for what he was able to accomplish. I hope Bernie will stick with the Democratic Party and help create positive change within the party. He deserves to have at least some of his ideas put into the party platform at the convention.

What I want now is inclusion, unity. It’s not going to be easy, but this country needs it. I hope that Bernie’s supporters will support Hillary in the general election and I think Bernie should play an important role in her campaign at that time. Until then, he should do what he think is best for his supporters and the American people.

The Democratic Party should continue to be inclusive and we need a dialogue of a diversity of ideas within the party. Liberals should not feel like they are ignored and moderates (like myself) need to also have a voice. It’s time for us to come together and make sure that we put another Democrat in The White House.

 

Scott Get’s a Facelift

 

Doomguy visited my website and said, “This ain’t working anymore,” and preceded to destroy it like he does those darn demons. What was I to do? Why, get a makeover of course! After more than four years, I felt it was time for a change. I can’t even think of when or what the last website update was.

Here’s what’s changed:

Look and Feel. The theme of scottdavidbrown.com has changed. As you can see, the green color is been replaced with a nice blue and the old header is gone. Now when you visit the site, the most recent blog post is the focus. The “leave comment” link is also at the top of the site, so it’s that much easier to comments on posts. You also get to see when it was posted right above the post.
Widgets. The design is similar to the old site, having the blog posts framed with useful information, but now there’s a lot less of those widgets to look at. I’ve consolidated my social media account links into one nice section and my twitter feed is a little bit more flashy. I’ve also removed my Goodreads widget and some of my website links. My shameless self-promotional links are gone, which means you’ll have to find other ways to give me money.

Doom

After playing in the Doom beta, there was little doubt that I’d buy the game. Now that I’ve finished the single-player campaign, I think I can say that longtime fans of the Doom series will be pleasantly surprised picking up the new version. It’s not a squeal, it’s a re-imagining of the original game with current graphics and beautiful carnage. The game returns to it’s roots. You’re the only hero killing demons without any help.

I won’t talk about the story, but I do feel like it’s an improvement to the original Doom game. It fits, though I still prefer Doom 3. Despite that, the story is good and keeps you guessing.

The single-player campaign is worth buying the game, it’s a fair length and challenging. However, some may feel the $60 price tag isn’t worth it. The user-generated map feature, SnapMap, is a fun addition, but has only one map environment. Multiplayer is classic FPS and fun for what it is. The highlight is picking up a demon rune, becoming a specific type of demon depending on your preference.

The “glory kill” is one of my favorite features. When you do enough damage, demons stagger. There’s a short period of time when the demons are dazed and they flash a blue hue to let players know. It’s a finishing move that makes melee kills more dramatic and gives you bonus ammo or health.

Running around on Mars actually made me think about the Metroid Prime Trilogy. I suppose Doomguy isn’t much like Samus Aran, but there are some similarities. They both live in a space-age future, wear cool spacesuits, have a HUD on their visors, and the UAC lab and facilities remind me of running around the space pirate facilities from Metroid. I really have to go back to The Other M, never finished that game.

The bottom line: Doom 2016 might not be everyone’s cup of tee, but it’s just what the doctor ordered if you are a fan of FPS. It’s not a perfect game, but the single-player campaign is wonderful. SnapMap is promising and hopefully there will be more environments available in the future. Multiplayer does have at least one unique feature, the demon runes, allowing a player to become a demon for a short while. While Doom does have some limitations, it’s worth a buy for the fans.

A Belated Mention of Earth Day

Sadly, I missed Earth Day yesterday. I usually write a post about it every year. “Why not just write a short one to try and make up for it,” I thought. I don’t need to feel too bad. I drive an electric car as does my mom and we use solar power. I also do my part to conserve water. Hopefully, most of you do your small part as well. Don’t forget, it feels good to do positive things to protect or clean up the environment.

One thing that you can do is use smile.amazon.com when you buy things online. Amazon will donate a portion of the money you spend on items towards your favorite charity. I’m currently supporting The Nature Conservancy, a group that works worldwide to protect the environment. It’s just a small thing, but it makes a difference.

Apple iWork Versus Microsoft Office

Apple has made a real effort building software to compete with Microsoft Office. I remember buying iWork 09 when I got my first Mac. Eventually Apple did a very nice thing by making the Mac and online versions of iWork free. You still have to buy the iOS version sadly, but I rarely use that since I don’t have an iPad anymore, so you could probably live without it.

I remember using Word Perfect, back in the day, most of my word pressing training was done with that software. I’ve spent a lot of time with MS Office, even on my mac, and unfortunately the last version of MS Office for Mac came out in 2011. It wasn’t until this year that we saw a new version for OS X.

Universities and corporations still require MS Office for students and employees, but Apple’s iWork software shouldn’t be overlooked. There are some advantages to using Pages over Word if you are a Mac user. I admit that in the past I typically used MS Word the most, even for writing my articles for iDropNews. Recently, I’ve switched back to Pages to do the bulk of my writing for work and then finish up with MS Word.

Let’s look at some of the features I like about Pages. First, by far the best feature, is how the app saves documents. Every file created in Pages is saved in the iCloud. This allows users to work on their documents with any Apple device be it Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Since the file is stored in one location, it’s easy to work on multiple devices. Another useful feature is the saving feature. Every keystroke or change is automatically saved. Of course, there still is the option to manually save, but why bother? The third, and perhaps not really a feature per-say, it the simplistic look and feel of Pages. It just works, it’s not flashy, and doesn’t take long to load.

Windows users obviously can’t use the iWork software, unless they opt for the web version. Word also has more features than Pages, though many of them require some research. I still have to use Word as the articles I write need to be in docx format. I can convert my documents from Pages into Word format with ease.

Microsoft has their own cloud service, now called One Drive, which works most of the time. The difference between iCloud and One Drive is how files are stored. Microsoft uses two copies, one in the cloud, and the other stored on your computer. It syncs the files instead of having just one storage place. In theory it sounds like a redundancy backup option, but when there is a discrepancy between the two copies there are problems.

Sometimes you may be forced to chose which copy of a file to keep. The server version or the computer version, should the two copies not match. It may be hard to know which one to keep. Usually I would chose the most recent file, but somehow it always seemed to end up being an older version of the document I was working on, forcing me to re-write large sections of the document. This happened to me once or twice when I was at school.

All in all, I like Pages more than Word. While MS Office is more widely used by most people, I think Pages shines with it’s reliability.  I was able to adjust to Pages fairly easily and with the few powerful features that I like, it’s the best way to make sure you don’t lose those important documents.

 

What’s Up Scott? App

It’s been several weeks since my last post  because I’ve been working on a brand new project. I’m officially announcing the “What’s Up Scott?” app coming soon to iOS and Android devices. What is this app, you ask? I’ll tell you!

The What’s Up Scott? app will give you a intimate connection to me, Scott David Brown. It will house an encyclopedia of information all about me, everything you wanted to know, all in one convenient place. Want to know where I was born? Open the app! Want to know what I ate for dinner on September 24th, 1996? Open the app! It will all be right at your fingertips.

It’s all me baby!

The app doesn’t just have wonderful information about me! Another feature of the app is a GPS location function. Where am I in the world? Get real-time, up-to-date location data 24/7. Yes, now you don’t have to work for the NSA to know where Scott David Brown is! Just open the What’s Up Scott? app and tap the Locator button. The app uses Mapquest, the best mapping website. A great feature for you stalkers out there!

Are you a voyeur? Then you will love this next feature, a 24/7 online live web camera. That’s right! Actually watch me right through the app, doing whatever it is I do every day. Watch me sit at my computer, writing, playing video games, watching TV, playing more video games, or whatever I’m doing. I might even have a friend over on occasion. *Please note* Certain activities will require a temporary suspension of this feature due to concerns about my privacy, resulting in a pause in the live feed. Rest assured this will usually be a short interruption.

There’s also a great feature called, “Message of the Day,” where I give a personal message to each user of the app. While it’s complicated to explain the complex algorithm the app uses to determine which message is for what user, rest assured that everyone using the app will get a tailored message, just for them. Feel special every day when you wake up in the morning and check for your new message right from the app!

Want to be my girlfriend? Well, there is the chance to date me right from the app. Just select the date button and see my official profile from all the online dating sites I’m on including all of those dating apps! After reading my profile on each site and app, you are given the option to “swipe right” me. Sorry, there is only a swipe right option. That’s just the way it goes. If you’re lucky, I will swipe right you with my personal version of the What’s Up Scott? app. Yes, I get my own, special version.

Finally, the last feature of the app is the donation feature. Do you have money that you don’t want anymore? Tired of the burden of being wealthy? Well, just tap on the donate button and you can relieve yourself of the stress and pain of having all that money sitting in your bank account. Give it to me, and I’ll spend it on all kinds of things that I like. Oh and depending on how much I get, I’ll give some of it to charity. *Caution* Money given to charity might actually just be money I give myself, for fun stuff. I should also mention that the app will be FREE, so anything you donate will help me with app updates and server maintenance.

I bet you’re probably really excited about this app, especially the donation feature. Well, me too! Sadly, it’s still going to be a few months before I’m finished with the app. While much progress has been made, I still have to design much of the interface and visual aspects of the app.There is also the process of waiting for the app to be approved by Apple. Worry not, I’m confident I will get the app approved. Just think, soon you will be able to download it and get connected with me in a way that hasn’t been possible before. So, fear not, soon I will be coming to your iPhone or Android phone! I look forward to it!