I've recently been thinking about upgrading the operating system on my desktop computer at home. More specifically, I've been tossing around the idea of upgrading to the 64-bit variant of Windows 7. Windows XP has been a decent operating system, but it's definitely feeling its age. Seeing as Windows 7 is being targeted for release on October 22, which is now less than 3 months away, I figured now is a good time to think about how I would upgrade.

Moving to a 64-bit OS would allow me to expand the amount of installed memory in my system. At a minimum, I would go to 4 GB installed, especially since Microsoft recommends at least 2 GB for the 64-bit flavor. To be safe, I think I might also buy some new hard drives and install the OS on those (keeping my current setup intact).

At $199 (for the full Home Premium version; $119 for an upgrade, which I have yet to read about), it seems quite an investment. Has anyone else thought about upgrading to Windows 7? Or is anyone currently running a 64-bit OS? If so, what are your thoughts?

I recently purchased a copy of Far Cry 2 on Steam. Oddly enough, Far Cry 2 has nothing to do with the first Far Cry, save for the name. Crytek, the original game's developer, wasn't involved in the development of Far Cry 2, so I'm confused as to why this game is billed as the true sequel. Other than the standard first person shooter tropes, the two have very little (if anything) in common.

To me, Far Cry 2 resembles the Grand Theft Auto series more than any traditional first person shooter. The mission design feels similar, as do many of the game mechanics. But in the long run, how does the game fare? Here's my review.

The Good

Sandbox Style Gameplay

I'm a sucker for sandbox games, especially when it comes to the FPS genre. Being given the freedom to attack a problem in a number of ways opens the door for replayability, as well as adding a sense of realism to the game. Far Cry 2 provides that experience to a point, and I had fun exploiting it as much as I could.

African Milieu

To my knowledge, no other game has presented the player with a setting like this. Many of the locales feel authentic, and there are certain moments when you can seemingly feel the surroundings (sunrises and sunsets in this game are particularly well done). Kudos for whoever made the call to set the game in this part of the world. It's refreshing to see something new.

Attempt at Realism

I'll give credit to the game developers for trying to make the game a little more realistic than some similar titles. Weapons degrade over time (arguably too quickly). Vehicles need repair as they take damage. Your view is restricted while driving (i.e. you can't swivel your head around). And your character occasionally must perform first-aid on himself when he's taken too much damage.

Grenade Launchers == Fun

Of all the weapons in the game, my personal favorite has to be the grenade launcher. It feels tremendously powerful, especially when it's mounted on the back of an assault truck. Drive around with one of these things and you will own your surroundings. Just make sure not to aim too closely to where you are standing.

Excellent Fire Mechanic

Far Cry 2 is the first game I've ever seen that uses a fire propagation mechanic. Set fire to dry vegetation and it will spread in the direction the wind blows. This can be used in clever ways to hem in the enemy, though this tactic isn't exploited in the game as it should be. Some missions designed around this would have been fun.

The Bad

Repetitive Missions

Mission design in Far Cry 2 is as bland as it gets. All of the arms dealer missions are the exact same setup (destroy a convoy somewhere on the map). All of the assassination missions are (you guessed it) assassinations of a person in various locations. And the main missions aren't much different. It's all either fetch an item, kill a person, or destroy some object.

Simplistic Game Mechanics

The mechanics of this game are very simple and feel like a console GTA clone. Usable objects flash slowly in the game, and there are only a few of those: ammunition, weapons, health kits, and save points (the latter of which seems redundant, seeing as you can save anywhere in the PC edition of the game). Driving vehicles is simple, but for some reason enemies can drive faster than you possibly can. A lot of the game feels dumbed down which is a shame.

Drab Color Palette

The color palette used in this game could hardly be more boring. Each locale is either brown or green; if you've seen one location, you've seen them all. The HDR lighting doesn't help in this regard. Outdoor scenes feel flat due to the bright sunlight, and indoor scenes are dark and dank due to the lack of sunlight.

Nonexistent Stealth Mechanic

There are a few weapons in the game with silencers, and the player can also purchase a camouflaged "stealth suit." But none of these features seem to make your character more stealthy. Enemies always seem to know where you are and it's hard to 'lose' them once they've detected you. This removes an aspect of Far Cry and Crysis that I loved the most: being able to hide from your attackers, regroup, and attack again from a new location. An honest-to-God stealth element would have made this game so much more fun.

Bland Weapon and Vehicle Design

For the most part, the weapons and vehicles in Far Cry 2 all feel the same. Sure the weapons may sound a little different, but they rarely have a noticeable difference in handling. For example, every machine gun seems to do the same amount of damage as the others. With the amount of choice given to the player from a weapons standpoint (there are bunch of weapons to unlock), you'd think the developers would have made them feel different. To make matters worse, a few weapons are even nearly impossible to use. The mortar is a prime example of this; there's no clear way to aim the shells, so the weapon is quickly rendered useless.

Malaria

Your player contracts Malaria at the beginning of the game, and keeps it until the end. The sickness is manifested by random "hallucination" sequences, making it hard to do anything until you pop a few pills to stave off the attack. Getting sick in a game like this is an interesting idea, but this implementation is poorly done.

Weak Story, Ending, and Voice Acting

Weak stories are commonplace among FPS's, so it should come as no surprise that the Far Cry 2 story is very weak. The ending of the game is equally as bad, and a real let down after spending many hours in the game world. Voice acting was atrocious across the board (one of the worst efforts I've ever heard). I would have rather read the dialog than hear actors read it to me in monotone.

The Verdict

This game had a lot going for it, but in the end I was mostly let down. Thankfully, I only paid $20 for it.

It seems like every web browser these days is spending an enormous amount of time and development effort on JavaScript performance. Whether it's the new TraceMonkey engine in Firefox 3.5, the V8 engine in Google Chrome, or the upcoming SquirrelFish engine in WebKit browsers, everyone claims (to some degree) superiority in this arms race. All of this raises two questions in my mind.

1. How important is JavaScript performance? Are JavaScript applications really that slow? I'll admit that the new Firefox 3.5 browser feels snappier on sites like GMail and Netflix, but said sites never felt that slow before. Why are developers spending so much time optimizing something that not everyone uses? Admittedly, JavaScript usage is going up (especially with the Web 2.0 craze), but how much latency does JavaScript computing really account for in today's world? I'm much more concerned about data transfer; that's the bottleneck I see. Broadband speeds here in the United States are ridiculously slow, compared to other parts of the world. Shouldn't we all focus on ways to improve that? Yes, I know software developers have little control over that kind of infrastructure, but perhaps there are better protocols out there to get data to the end user in a more efficient manner.

2. Won't improved JavaScript performance lead to poorer JavaScript programming? As computers have gotten faster over the past two decades, and as memory sizes have increased, applications have become more bloated and (arguably) slower than before. I'm convinced that if programmers had retained the "every byte matters" mentality from the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s, applications would be leaner and meaner than they are today (especially in the realm of operating systems). Can't the same thing be said for JavaScript programming? As JavaScript engines get faster, serious performance considerations during an application's design phase might become less and less frequent. I'm of the opinion that high performance hardware can lead to sloppy programming. "Well, the application is good enough" is what the pointy-haired bosses of the world would say. Shouldn't the application be the best it can be? Can't one argue that "good enough" isn't necessarily good enough?

I'll be interested to see where this arms race takes us. What do you think?

The Disk Cleanup utility that comes as a part of Windows has an annoying feature. As a part of its scan procedure, it tries to figure out how much space you'd save by "compressing old files." This step takes a ridiculously long time to complete, and is highly annoying. Thankfully, disabling this feature is simple, though it involves editing your Windows registry. As always, be very careful during the editing process.

To disable the "Compress Old Files" operation, navigate to this registry key, and delete it:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress old files

Once you've deleted the above key, start up the Disk Cleanup utility and marvel at how much faster it loads!

My dad has just posted some details on how he's reducing the humidity under his house. It's a pretty cool solution that utilizes 'SmartVents' (essentially a vent with some muffin fans and the appropriate sensors). Head on over to the article to get the full details.

Is anyone else seeing a slow startup issue with Firefox 3.5? I'm talking about the initial load (after turning on your computer, for example). For me, startup times have increased dramatically with 3.5, and I've even tried creating a new profile. On my machine at home, cold startup takes between 30 and 60 seconds. On my laptop, it's between 15 and 30 seconds. Firefox 3.0.11 took on the order of 5 or 10 seconds on both machines.

I've got to believe something is wrong with 3.5. Maybe a 3.5.1 is on the horizon...

Update: According to commenter Dean, cleaning out your temporary directory should help things (and it worked for me). To locate the temp folder, open a command prompt and type echo %TEMP%. For me, the folder was under "Documents and Settings\Jonah\Local Settings\Temp." I cleaned this out using the Disk Cleanup utility (mine was 750 MB in size!) and startup was much faster (10 seconds or so).

Update 2: I've found the requisite bug about this problem on Bugzilla: bug 501605. If I read this correctly, NSS uses files in the temporary folder to seed its random number generator. If you have tons of files, this operation takes a long time (the file scan operation isn't as efficient as it should be). There may also be other factors (as commenters in the bug report suggest), but this is at least one of the problem areas.

The latest and greatest version of Firefox is now available. There are a lot of new features and fixes in this release, including HTML 5 support, the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, Private Browsing, and lots more.

Both CoLT and Googlebar Lite are compatible with the new release, so make sure you're up to date with both.

I've bitten the proverbial bullet and joined twitter. You can follow me (if you're so inclined) at my oh-so-clever username: jonahbishop. I'll be using the service for small things that aren't quite worth a blog post (it will not take the place of this site). We'll see how it goes over time.

Frustratingly enough, when I signed up for twitter, the site was having major problems. Thankfully, things seem to be back to normal now. I've noticed a strange thing with the service, however. After climbing into the twitter pool, I noticed a number of leeches attaching themselves to my account. In other words, a number of random people started following me for no apparent reason (I recognize none of them). Does anyone else here who uses twitter see the same thing? Is there a way to stop it? Are these people simply spammers out to get "trackback" style web-cred?

The 30th annual Festival for the Eno is coming up next weekend, July 3-5. If you're in the Triangle area in North Carolina, be sure to check it out. Tickets are $15 at the gate, and most (if not all) of the money goes to conserving the Eno River. The event is "trash free" (over 90% of trash is either recycled or composted) and a great way to spend a day. Over 80 musical and dance groups will be performing on 4 stages during the 3 days. Add to this great food, art vendors, and the beautiful West Point on the Eno setting, and you have a recipe for a great time.

I'll most likely be out there on Friday; if you see me, be sure to say hello!

Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking about backup strategies for my data. I'm bad about not backing things up on a regular basis, and I'm hoping to change that. There are a number of routes one can take, and I've been looking at several.

The easiest solution is to backup data onto removable media (CD, DVD, or an external hard drive). This method is cheapest, but it also has some serious drawbacks. CDs and DVDs have relatively small data footprints, which means you have to use many discs to backup sizable data stores. Writable discs also don't last forever. The most serious flaw with this strategy, however, is that the backups are not off site. If someone breaks in and steals my computer, they are almost certain to also take the external hard drive sitting next to it. The same can be said for a fire; if the machine burns, so does the hard drive.

A number of online services are available for doing data backup. Carbonite and Mozy are two of the bigger ones I've heard about. These services give you off site backups, but they too have drawbacks. Often, these services have software that runs all the time on your machine, incrementally backing up as you go (which may be something you don't want). In some cases, you also have limited control over exactly what gets backed up. The services cost money, and you're giving your data to a third party. And, with lousy broadband in the US, initial upload times for large data can be painfully slow.

What does everyone here do to backup their data? Can anyone recommend a service or strategy that works well for them?

If you use WordPress, I advise against upgrading to version 2.8. I attempted to do so to this site this evening (via Subversion), and everything appeared to go smoothly. Unfortunately, upon logging in to my admin panel, I noted that everything was broken. The external site still performed as expected, but I couldn't get around in the admin area.

Zero steps forward, twenty steps back.

Maybe others will have better luck than I did. I have since reverted back to 2.7.1 for the time being, though my database may now be corrupt. If you notice anything funky around this site, please, please, please let me know.

A recent trend among websites for games that have a "M for Mature" (or similar) rating is the use of age gates. These gates require the user to enter their birth date before they can view information on the subject in question. Usually, the user is presented with three pull down menus: one for the month, one for the day, and one for the year. From a legal perspective, I can understand why companies want to use this feature. But who are these gates really keeping out? Every kid should know that by providing an old enough date, they can gain access to the site. After all, this isn't rocket science.

Every time I visit a website with one of these gates, I enter the most ridiculous date possible by selecting the oldest year offered (usually 1900). Maybe if enough people enter ridiculous dates every time, this annoying website 'feature' will go away.

Way back when I signed up for Netflix, I added a bunch of movies I had never seen to my queue. Several of these movies fall into what I call my "list of shame" (I'm borrowing the term from Dan Trachtenberg of the The Totally Rad Show). These are movies that everyone but me had already seen, and are fairly seminal. Yesterday, Dustin and I were discussing what qualifies a movie for the "list of shame" and I'm not sure I have a steadfast rule. For the most part, it's a movie that, if I told most anyone I hadn't seen it, they would say incredulously, "You haven't seen that?!?"

Anyways, I thought it would be fun to share a few movies from my list, along with the rating I ultimately gave it at Netflix (using their 5 star rating scheme):

• Beverly Hills Cop (5)
• Big Trouble in Little China (4)
• Billy Madison (4)
• The Birds (4)
• The Blues Brothers (4)
• Caddyshack (3)
• The Dirty Dozen (4)
• Doctor Strangelove (5)
• The Godfather (5)
• The Godfather: Part II (4)
• The Goonies (4)
• Groundhog Day (4)
• Happy Gilmore (4)
• It's a Wonderful Life (4)
• Jaws (4)
• Saturday Night Fever (4)
• Scarface (4)
• Smokey and the Bandit (4)
• Spaceballs (3)
• Tron (4)

For the most part, I really enjoyed every movie on this list. And I can now say "yes, I've seen that" when asked by someone about these movies. There are still a few upcoming movies on my queue that fit this bill (including Citizen Kane, The Godfather: Part III, and Blazing Saddles). Do you have movies on your "list of shame?" If so, what are they?

Hate on the Nintendo Wii all you want, but it has clearly made Sony and Microsoft nervous (especially since the Wii has made money since day one, while the 360 and PS3 are still losing money on each sale). This week, Sony announced a PS3 motion controller, and Microsoft announced the Project Natal motion controller. For those not already in the know, the Nintendo Wii has had this capability for over 2 years now (though, granted, the Microsoft approach is a new twist).

I agree that the Nintendo Wii has, at some levels, been a relatively 'weak' platform compared to the others. It lacks HD support, has a fairly thin library of games, and has clunky online support. As a result, the Wii has been given the cold-shoulder by the "hard-core gaming community." The two recently announced, upcoming Mario titles (Super Mario Galaxy 2 and The New Super Mario Bros.) probably aren't enough to improve its reputation.

All that aside, it looks like the "big boys" are playing catch-up to Nintendo's "little engine that could." Maybe Nintendo knows the future more than we think they do...

I've whipped up a quick logo to dress up this site a bit. The previous plain-text heading was a bit boring (as one reader rightly pointed out), so hopefully this is a step in a better direction. Other minor style changes have also been made (sidebar headings should now look a little better, for example).

Thoughts? Constructive criticism? Comment away!

The new Spy and Sniper class updates are coming today, with the following goodies:

• A bow and arrow for the Sniper
• The Razorback shield for the Sniper
• Jars of urine for the Sniper (can you believe they actually made this a real weapon?!?)
• Two brand new watches for the Spy
• The Ambassador pistol for the Spy
• Payload Race game type and two new Arena maps
• Meet the Spy video

To top it all off, Valve is opening Team Fortress 2 to everyone for free this weekend. So download Steam, pre-load the files, and join in the fun!

I have squashed some bugs from yesterday's theme unveiling:

• The primary page container now renders properly in IE 6
• Recent comments show up again in the sidebar
• The PayPal donate button had somehow disappeared from the donation information page. It has now been restored.
• DreamHost discount information has been updated (it was woefully out of date)

Born Geek has been given a new set of clothes! The old design was, quite frankly, an eyesore. This new layout is simpler, cleaner, and much easier on the eyes. Gravatar support has been added. And visitors using Firefox 3+ get extra eye candy (so switch today)! Not everything is complete in this new theme, so expect to see minor tweaks and fixes over the next few days. It's been tested in Firefox and IE 7. Your mileage may vary in anything else. As always, let me know what you think and if you stumble upon any bugs.

Also note that you may have to force a refresh if you visited the site recently, so as to pick up the new style sheet!

Not only are we getting a Sniper class update (with a bow and arrow and the Razorback shield), but it looks like Valve is shipping the Spy class update as well (with two new watches)! Let it be known that I officially love Valve and Team Fortress 2.

Coming along with these updates is a new game play type, Payload Race, which looks super fun, and two new arena maps (which I'm not too wild about). This massive update doesn't drop until next Thursday, so there are still some goodies to be unveiled. New hats are also going to be available in this update, which should provide some fun.

I'm really looking forward to this update, even though Spy and Sniper are my two least-played classes. Perhaps this will motivate me to spend more time in those roles.

Tonight's season finale for The Office was pretty weak, in my opinion. To begin with, I was a little miffed that it wasn't an hour long, but after the show was over, I was glad it hadn't been. I'm not sure I could have stood another half hour of boredom. The only redeeming part of the episode was the tension between Michael and Holly. Here's hoping that things get back on track next season!

What did you guys think?