JP Powers

Also, winter is coming and all it wants is fire and blood.

thewolfsinyourbed:

When i find someone who likes Game Of Thrones

heyo girl, who’s your favorite Lannister?

I was digging through my old Humble Bundle purchases and realized I have a bunch Steam keys for games I already own. So, I’ll give ‘em out.

Send me a message on Twitter or Facebook if you want one. First come, first serve, no more than one code per person, etc.

Links go to the Steam page if you wanna check out the trailer or screen shots.

Crayon Physics Deluxe: Windows and Mac OS X

Eufloria: Windows

Machinarium: Windows and Mac OS X

Saint’s Row: The Third: Windows only (Not 100% sure if this one works, I gave it to a gaming podcast so they could use it as a prize, don’t think they ever used it)

Splice: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (I have TWO codes for this, because it comes with like every freaking humble bundle apparently)

wut

It’s time to update the listing for my current PC build’s parts. Some of this will be a copy/paste from my last list, but I’m clarifying a few things.

Well, for anyone thinking of diving into the PC gaming world, or those that have been out of it, here’s my current build. I’m linking to NewEgg because it’s easier, but I actually got a few of the parts through BestBuy because it’s cheaper (ignoring my employee discounts, too). A couple of the parts are “adjustable” because I wanted to go one way when others might want to go another. I’ll put notes in for each part as to why I did it instead of another option.

• Case: Corsair 650D - $190 - I had originally wanted to do a NZXT Phantom, because it’s awesome looking, then decided on a Corsair 600T White Edition, but landed on the 650D. It has amazing build quality, excessively easy to build and work in, and is actually really nice looking while lacking gaudy bright LED fans.
• PSU: Corsair HX650 - $120 - I like modular PSU’s, and the HX is nearly fully modular, the only part that’s not is the 20/24+4/8 pins, which you have to plug in anyways. I thought of going bigger than 650W, but I usually use a single video card in the $300 price point, so I really don’t need it. I could run a pretty serious overclock of my CPU with one video card and be fine, or a moderate overclock of CPU with SLI’d GTX (something)60’s and be fine. I do neither, so all the better.
• Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V - $190 - The Z77 chipset is the de-facto Ivy Bridge chipset, supporting everything you want when paired with one. Feature for feature, ASUS packs in an incredible amount of stuff versus their competition, and few can beat, let alone match, their customer service and RMA process. I considered going up to the P8Z77-V Pro, but the extra onboard headers it provides (1 extra USB3.0, TPM, COM port) aren’t worth the price jump, I think.
• CPU: Intel i5-3570K - $220 - I considered doing a 3770K, but the HyperThreading will provide little extra performance in gaming. Although I do FRAPS games and edit the videos, I don’t do it enough or use the higher end video editing features to warrant it. That said, I can always upgrade to it down the road.  I only have done a smaller overclock of the 3570K, having the unlocked part is worth it.
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 2x4GB (8GB) DDR3 1600 - $45 - I did low profile RAM because it gives me room for larger CPU coolers if I need/want it, and I’ve been running 8GB’s of RAM for a couple of years now and can’t remotely see needing more unless I buy a DSLR and shoot in RAW. I just don’t use all 8GB. Getting factory overclocked RAM is nice, but even this non-overclocked RAM didn’t show up right to the motherboard because it tried to run it at 1333MHz. Also, the minor speed jumps in RAM speeds don’t produce enough of a performance increase, I believe.
• CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus - $30 - Under full load, with a small overclock, and the case’s fans set to automatic, my CPU barely brushes up against 50C. This cooler is insanely good for air cooling, and so cheap you can’t argue against it for this kind of rig. I actually bought a new one, but I ran one on my last system, too. If you plan on a big overclock, Corsair’s H80 or H100 are seriously nice, prefabbed water cooling systems. Reliable enough, but if you move your PC around too much it’s difficult to trust any water cooling.
• Video Card: EVGA GTX660Ti FTW - $300 - For the money, huge bang for the buck. The 600 Series Kepler chips from nVidia run cool, use very little power, and push out amazing performance. Top notch, can’t argue with it. EVGA has a great RMA process, a lot like ASUS, but EVGA’s Precision X tool blows everything out of the water. It gives you tons of feedback even if you don’t overclock, and if you do it makes it stupid simple.
• OS Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD - $190 - The only reason I’m running a 256GB SSD is I had the chance to get a freebie for Christmas this past year for my old system. I had planned to do a smaller, 64GB SSD paired with a Western Digital Black series hard drive and use Intel’s new SRT feature. SRT allows the motherboard to make a “Hybrid Drive.” It caches the most accessed files on the SSD, basically. The 830 is a killer SSD, though. Rock solid and stupid fast. If you’re going to do a single SSD, it’s hard to live with less than a 256GB. You can swing a 120-128GB, but Windows 7 is 20GB’s on it’s own, and most games are no smaller than 5GB. The Witcher 2 and Tera are 25GB’s each, ARMA 2 Combined Operations (required for DayZ) is about 17GB’s. You need the space.
• Mass Storage: Seagate 1TB SATA3 - $85 - I have a Western Digital 2TB NAS I use for “mass storage” of videos, music, etc. I really use this just for FRAPS’ing. FRAPS on this rig makes freaking huge files, and it’s more than fast enough to write it all at speed. Most people would probably use this for what I use my NAS for.
• Optical Drive: LG SATA DVD/CD burner - $18 - Something simple. I considered doing a Blu-Ray drive but a writer is still pretty expensive and really, I mean, who cares? You just need it to install the OS and anything else. You COULD skip it entirely if you wanted and install from USB flash drives, but it’s a pain setting that crap up.
• Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM - $100 - I actually use Ultimate because I got it for silly cheap from a Microsoft training program when I worked at Best Buy, but I was running Home Premium before that. Ultimate isn’t necessary for pretty much anyone, Home Premium is fine. I still recommend against Windows 8 just because most even slightly older games have not been updated for Windows 8, and although it does some cool stuff it’s just not mature enough yet.

When I originally wrote this up in the summer, this build was about $1500. Now it’s down to just shy of $1400. That’s accounting for price drops, as well as swapping out the video card for a much, much newer one. That said, you can still save a bit by replacing some of the parts I used for a smarter build, in my opinion. For instance, you can pick up a 1TB hard drive and 64GB SSD and probably save at least $100. Performance wouldn’t be worlds apart, and frankly it might be more reliable.

When it comes down to it, these my general rules of thumb for pricing individual parts, and things to consider when pricing them:

• Spend about the same amount on your CPU and Video Card. I usually shoot for $300-ish on either. That’s the sweet spot for price/performance. If a card that’s usually $300 is on sale to $250, great. If a better card is on sale down to $325, that’s cool, too. Intel usually does one revision during a life cycle. Meaning, the i5-3570K I have is the first version of Ivy Bridge. We’ll probably see one more before the CPU’s that replace Ivy Bridge. My 3570K will go down in price, and something else that’s a higher clock speed or more cache (probably both) will replace it at a price point. If Sandy Bridge is an indicator of what they’ll do with Ivy Bridge parts, ignore the revision.
• Don’t ever skimp on the motherboard and PSU. Get quality parts when you can. They’re the parts that are most likely to bite a bullet, specifically if you’re pushing your system. There are a lot of quality names out there, so do research. Personally I’m a huge fan of ASUS for the motherboard, but the PSU I’m not terribly picky about as long as it’s a reputable brand. A lot of PSU’s that come from companies like EVGA are rebranded parts, which isn’t always a bad thing but worth investigating.
• Even if you’re going to stick a PC under the desk and out of sight, you need to consider the case. How easy is it to build in? What’s the airflow like? Will you need to buy fans for it or replace the ones it comes with? If it says USB3.0 support, how does it do it? A header or pass through cables (the latter is annoying, and what my Corsair 650D does)? Again, personally, I hate cases with lots of lights. The only complaint with my Corsair 650D is the Power Button and HD Activity lights are INSANELY bright white LEDs, but they are actually tasteful and nice looking. Too bright for me, though, so I covered them up with electrical tape. Think about that stuff ahead of time.
• The idea of buying parts of a new build over the span of a few months instead of doing it all at once is not a good one. You spend too much of that time waiting for the next great technology. It’s OK to put off buying one or two parts if your system can handle the upgrade when they do come out, but buying a CPU and motherboard at different times is a bad idea, you want to get the memory and cooler for it at the same time, too, and why not get the rest at once? If you’re doing it because you have trouble saving up, maybe you dip into the fund too frequently, and think you can manage your money better by spending it in bits over time, you should use this as a test of your will power. Figure out what you’re looking for spec wise, figure out the basic price, save up, and readjust any specs or prices when you’ve saved up. If you can’t do that, sign up for a store credit card or two from retailers that sell parts, buy what you need and pay it off as fast as you can. You’ll be happier, I promise.

siteomelete:

Bandeiras das casas  da cultura pop no estilo de Game of Thrones.

Neat

This inspires. To find love, and to dash fake love.

Also, in me, to read and to write.

maxscoville:

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

People always reply back to that with, “Well, sarcasm is hard to read on the internet!” and I’m always like, “No, it’s not. It’s the internet. It’s always sarcasm.”

So, Cliffy B is leaving Epic Games. If you don’t understand that, I don’t care, it’s time for me to go on a conspiracy theory bend.

So, in the last couple of years, any time that the CEO of a company and the company both make independent announcements of the CEO’s departure, it’s for stupid reasons. At HP, it’s because the guy was using company money to pay for an affair he was having. At Best Buy, it’s because the guy was using company money to pay for an affair, but in some sort of “worse than HP” way.

MEANING, clearly, Cliffy B’s cheating on his girlfriend.

jennyowenyoungs:

At long sweet last… here is my cover of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.” 

I’m not going to sit here and try to tell you that I don’t love “Call Me Maybe.” Because I do. Aside from being the feel-good hit of the summer (and spring… and for me, on into the fall) I think there’s a good bit of sadness in this song. That longing is the angle from which I approached this cover. Ta da!

I don’t even care if you’re sick of this song, it’s Jenny Owen Youngs and I love her and you can shut the fuck up.

kenzieone:

daenerysofdragonstone:

The Avengers as A Song of Ice and Fire houses

sorry I didn’t put Tony in House Stark

ohmygod love

I don’t like this.
Loki is the usper, Thor is the rightful heir to the throne. They need to be flipped around.
How the hell is Nick Fury a Greyjoy?
The rest are “OK I guess” except Stark. I understand putting Ironman as a Stark is kind of obvious, but frankly Tony as a Lannister makes a bit more sense. The colors, the money, and the fact that he’s basically Tyrion but not a dwarf.

thronesmeme:

raleighrunoff:

Thanks,

     -RR

Oh, well, fuck you, too.

So, Cliffy B got a hard on for PC gaming again, after lamenting it a couple years ago because Gears of War sold better than Unreal Tournament 3. Fortnite, the first Unreal Engine 4 product, will be PC Exclusive. He apparently even went as far as saying you can get a next-gen console now, and it’s a gaming PC.

Well, for anyone thinking of diving into the PC gaming world, or those that have been out of it, here’s my current build. I’m linking to NewEgg because it’s easier, but I actually got a few of the parts through BestBuy because it’s cheaper (ignoring my employee discounts, too). A couple of the parts are carry overs from my last system, and a couple are “adjustable” because I wanted to go one way when others might want to go another. I’ll put notes in for each part, saying if it’s a carry over, or why I did it instead of another option.

• Case: Corsair 650D - $180 - I had originally wanted to do a NZXT Phantom, because it’s awesome looking, then decided on a Corsair 600T White Edition, but landed on the 650D. It has amazing build quality, excessively easy to build and work in, and is actually really nice looking while lacking gaudy bright LED fans.
• PSU: Corsair HX650 - $125 - I like modular PSU’s, and the HX is nearly fully modular, the only part that’s not is the 20/24+4/8 pins, which you have to plug in anyways. I thought of going bigger than 650W, but I usually use a single video card in the $300 price point, so I really don’t need it. I could run a pretty serious overclock of my CPU with one video card and be fine, or a moderate overclock of CPU with SLI’d GTX (something)60’s and be fine. I do neither, so all the better.
• Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V - $180 - The Z77 chipset is the de-facto Ivy Bridge chipset, supporting everything you want when paired with one. Feature for feature, ASUS packs in an incredible amount of stuff versus their competition, and few can match, let alone beat, their customer service and RMA process. I considered going up to the P8Z77-V Pro, but the extra onboard headers it provides (1 extra USB3.0, TPM, COM port) aren’t worth the price jump, I think.
• CPU:Intel i5-3570K - $230 - I considered doing a 3770K, but the HyperThreading will provide little extra performance in gaming. Although I do FRAPS games and edit the videos, I don’t do it enough or use the higher end video editing features to warrant it. That said, I can always upgrade to it down the road.  I only have done a smaller overclock of the 3570K, having the unlocked part is worth it.
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 2x4GB (8GB) DDR3 1600 - $55 - I did low profile RAM because it gives me room for larger CPU coolers if I need/want it, and I’ve been running 8GB’s of RAM for a couple of years now and can’t remotely see needing more unless I buy a DSLR and shoot in RAW. I just don’t use all 8GB. Getting factory overclocked RAM is nice, but even this non-overclocked RAM didn’t show up right to the motherboard because it tried to run it at 1333MHz. Also, the minor speed jumps in RAM speeds don’t produce enough of a performance increase, I believe.
• CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus - $30 - Under full load, with a small overclock, and the case’s fans set to automatic, my CPU barely brushes up against 50C. This cooler is insanely good for air cooling, and so cheap you can’t argue against it for this kind of rig. I actually bought a new one, but I ran one on my last system, too. If you plan on a big overclock, Corsair’s H80 or H100 are seriously nice, prefabbed water cooling systems. Reliable enough, but if you move your PC around too much it’s difficult to trust any water cooling.
• Video: EVGA GTX460 1GB - $125 - I carried this over from my last build because I’m still waiting on the nVidia GTX660/GTX660Ti cards. It’s basically the only bottleneck I have left in my system, and I run pretty much every game on higher settings with no problems. I can’t sustain higher FPS on all of them, but most of the demanding games stick in the 35-40fps range, while many stay at frame rate caps (60fps). I’m linking to a refurb because there aren’t any other versions available for it. I’ve considered jumping over to an AMD 7850 or 7870, but can’t talk myself into it.
• Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD - $300 - The only reason I’m running a 256GB SSD is I had the chance to get a freebie for Christmas this past year for my old system. I had planned to do a smaller, 64GB SSD paired with a Western Digital Black series hard drive and use Intel’s new SRT feature. SRT allows the motherboard to make a “Hybrid Drive.” It caches the most accessed files on the SSD, basically. The 830 is a killer SSD, though. Rock solid and stupid fast. If you’re going to do a single SSD, it’s hard to live with less than a 256GB. You can swing a 120-128GB, but Windows 7 is 20GB’s on it’s own, and most games are no smaller than 5GB. The Witcher 2 and Tera are 25GB’s each, ARMA 2 Combined Operations (required for DayZ) is about 17GB’s. You need the space.
• Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate - $290 - I’m running Ultimate only because I got it from Microsoft for dirt cheap through their retail employee training program. If I hadn’t gotten it for nearly free I’d be running Home Premium, Ultimate has no features worth the price jump for a gaming rig. Doing an OEM version is worth it for the savings, but make sure you get 64-Bit.

The prices I listed are what NewEgg is currently listing them at, making my current build a $1500 Rig. I actually spent more like $1250, I think, but that’s because some of the parts I got cheaper else where. You can also replace some of the parts I used for a smarter build, in my opinion. For instance, you can pick up a 1TB hard drive and 64GB SSD for about $200 instead of $300 for a fat SSD. Performance wouldn’t be worlds apart, and frankly it might be more reliable.

When it comes down to it, these my general rules of thumb for pricing individual parts, and things to consider when pricing them:

• Spend about the same amount on your CPU and Video Card. I usually shoot for $300-ish on either. That’s the sweet spot for price/performance. If a card that’s usually $300 is on sale to $250, great. If a better card is on sale down to $325, that’s cool, too. Intel usually does one revision during a life cycle. Meaning, the i5-3570K I have is the first version of Ivy Bridge. We’ll probably see one more before the CPU’s that replace Ivy Bridge. My 3570K will go down in price, and something else that’s a higher clock speed or more cache (probably both) will replace it at a price point. If Sandy Bridge is an indicator of what they’ll do with Ivy Bridge parts, ignore the revision.
• Don’t ever skimp on the motherboard and PSU. Get quality parts when you can. They’re the parts that are most likely to bite a bullet, specifically if you’re pushing your system. There are a lot of quality names out there, so do research. Personally I’m a huge fan of ASUS for the motherboard, but the PSU I’m not terribly picky about as long as it’s a reputable brand. A lot of PSU’s that come from companies like EVGA are rebranded parts, which isn’t always a bad thing but worth investigating.
• Even if you’re going to stick a PC under the desk and out of sight, you need to consider it. How easy is it to build in? What’s the airflow like? Will you need to buy fans for it or replace the ones it comes with? If it says USB3.0 support, how does it do it? A header or pass through cables (the latter is annoying)? Again, personally, I hate cases with lots of lights. The only complaint with my Corsair 650D is the Power Button and HD Activity lights are INSANELY bright white LEDs, but they are actually tasteful and nice looking. Too bright for me, though, so I covered them up with electrical tape. Think about that stuff ahead of time.
• The idea of buying parts of a new build over the span of a few months instead of doing it all at once is not a good one. You spend too much of that time waiting for the next great technology. It’s OK to put off buying one or two parts if your system can handle the upgrade when they do come out, but buying a CPU and motherboard at different times is a bad idea, you want to get the memory and cooler for it at the same time, too, and why not get the rest at once? If you’re doing it because you have trouble saving up, maybe you dip into the fund too frequently, and think you can manage your money better by spending it in bits over time, you should use this as a test of your will power. Figure out what you’re looking for spec wise, figure out the basic price, save up, and readjust any specs or prices when you’ve saved up. If you can’t do that, sign up for a store credit card or two from retailers that sell parts, buy what you need and pay it off as fast as you can. You’ll be happier, I promise.

I’ll try to do more posts like this in the future, maybe about how to build a system for those that haven’t or haven’t in a while, key software to have on any Windows desktop (specifically a gaming rig), and other finer points, like why having a second monitor is incredibly helpful while gaming and also totally boss.

Got some Lollipop Chainsaw swag at work! I’m keeping the box and poster, but if someone wants the T-shirt feel free to ask. (Taken with Instagram)

I try to play way to many games at once. I have a level 45 Lancer in Tera I’m ignoring, still haven’t done my first Masters in Tiger Woods 13, even with 120+ hours in Skyrim I haven’t actually finished the main story, I can’t fathom deciding who to follow out of Flotsam in The Witcher 2, and I downloaded the Counter Strike Global Offensive beta only to remember I don’t care for CS. All I’ve done the last week or two is ATTEMPT to find a DayZ (ArmA2 mod) that works well enough to play on, or steam roll over faces in Super Monday Night Combat as the OP gunner.

The reason I say this is, as I sat down at my computer after getting off of work, I thought, “What am I gonna play? Ain’t nothing to do, I guess…” What an asshole.

So here’s the idea: A split screen view of two different people, both of them alone in their little split screen rooms. They’re both feeling a little sick and decide to pop a couple dayquil or whatever. They both swallow wrong and start choking. They both pull out smart phones, one’s 4G the other is 3G. The 4G guy finds directions on how to self-Heimlich and laughs in the face of death. The 3G guy is dead. Smash cut to carrier logo.

Google Plus has been, so far, quite a triumph for Google. It’s gotten a fair bit of media attention, there’s a visible clamor for invites on other social networks, and, most importantly, it’s a great product. A lot of people are still trying to it figure out. Google included, I imagine. What’s perfect as is? What’s lacking? And where? how are the masses going to use it? There are a number of features that the current batch of Google Plus beta testers have talked about in depth, but a few I feel have been ignored. Chiefly, Sparks.

To understand what I want from Sparks, I think I need to clarify a bit of my personal history with online news consumption in the last couple of years. I was a Digg user for some time, but stopped using it not long after version 4 was released. Originally, for my purposes, Digg was just a news aggregator. Other users posted news, other users voted on if it was good or not, and it’d end up on the front page where I’d read it.  I voted, too, but rarely in the Upcoming sections. I could go to digg.com at 2pm, see one batch of news, and come back at 6pm and see all new stuff that had been shared since. Digg 4 took it all in a more “social” direction, focusing too heavily on some abstract community. Also, they tried to cater to news outlets by including some archaic system for users to follow Cracked or The Wall Street Journal, but it was some sort fo all or nothing game. The way I was using Digg was virtually impossible now. So, I went to reddit. Reddit is built from the ground up for it’s community, but community references itself ad nauseum. Although I’m still using it, it falls far short of how I want to consume my news, but does hit a few key points.

My ideal system is that I follow certain key interests I have. Video games, MMO’s, Formula 1, sports cars, world news, national politics, books, movies, television, etc. Users submit stories from around the internet to these topics, and other users vote it up or down based on how “good” the story is. Very reddit “subreddit” inspired, I know. The difference to me is that I’d don’t ever want to see comments, user names, anything that identifies the user that submits it, the users voting on it, anything. Just a headline, a blurp, and the score it’s gotten. I just want the bits and pieces from around the web. For instance, I don’t care about what some guy says about what a girl did after she heard about what her mom said the president was going to do. I care about what the president is going to do, and MAYBE what someone’s reaction is if it’s poignant (or funny). To me, if you’re opinion on the matter is valuable to the internet, then you should take the time and write something in depth. People will submit it and vote it up if it’s good. If it’s not, then shut the hell up.

Now, to get back to Google Plus. Sparks has been, at least from my point of view, widely ignored. I see SO MUCH potential for Sparks to fill this void in “just the news.” As Sparks works right now, I search for the topic I want to see a Spark about, Formula 1 for instance, and hit “Add Interest.” Now I have a nice little news feed of F1 news. The current problem is there aren’t enough news sources parsed, which can be fixed easily enough for the automated side of things. However, half of the point of Google Plus has been the +1 button. There’s a voting system already built into the thing, why aren’t they using it in Sparks? They could easily hit on every point I’m looking for with some (I imagine) subtle changes. Have the Sparks pull in more news sources, probably using Google News’ as a starting bed. Then allow user submitted material. As the system sees certain sites being submitted regularly, it gets parsed if it wasn’t already. Users can then vote for all the news with +1’s. Each Spark has two tabs, Top News and Upcoming. Freshly submitted pieces go in upcoming, and things that are getting a lot of +1’s or shares goes in top. You could even create another one of those annoying “share it!” buttons for webpages to include, a “Spark it” button. The user can go to a Cheezburger network site, hit Spark it, pick the Spark for it to go it, and they submit and +1 it at the same time.

I see a lot of potential in Google Plus as a whole. I can treat it like a Twitter/Facebook cross over, potentially dropping a service or two in time. If Sparks grows and develops in the right ways, I can replace a lot of news sources I hit multiple times a day, too. I don’t remember the last time I was actually excited to see where one of these projects goes, there’s so much potential and I think everyone knows it.

why does it take 3-4 days to process a credit card payment? You ask the bank if I have it, they say yes, you do it. SYN/ACK my money, dudes.