Gamer, geek, Israeli gay teenager, high school student, C#/Java developer and poet.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Team Fortress 2’s The Heavy sings Baby so much better. Honestly, I think the chorus and Scout’s rap bit are the best parts. ^^
Happy Birthday to me!
Today’s my birthday! Yaaaaay! :D
Today I was at Cinema City and as I was waiting in line at the food court, I noticed a FAIL. Apparently, this place sells witches! Blasphemy!
P.S.: Before you say anything, I just submitted it to Failblog. Though, the word wasn’t circled and the image was less sharp. I hope it still gets featured! (Sorry for the lousy quality. Not only is my phone’s camera horrible, but I also had to use digital zoom.)
Security tip: Disable unneeded plug-ins
A little while ago, I visited a site which apparently uses browser exploits to infect PCs. Someone who tried to visit it got a notice from his AntiVirus, saying the virus was “JS/Exploit.Pdfka.NXM Trojan”. A short search has shown this is common among PDF files. Luckily, I had Adobe’s “Reader” plug-in disabled in Chrome. If it wasn’t, I may’ve had a virus right now. (Just in case, a virus scan is currently running in the background.)
Cases like this prove just how unsafe plug-ins can be. I suggest to disable any plug-ins you don’t use in your everyday life. It helps lighten the load on your system and lowers the chance a website could infect your computer (without downloading and installing something). To do this on Chrome, click the wrench icon at the right border of the toolbar, and click “Options”. Then switch to the third tab - “Under the Hood” (“Under the Bonnet” for me) - and click on “Content Settings…”. Pick the tab or list item “Plug-ins” (depending on Chrome’s version), and click on the link “Disable individual plug-ins…”.
I suggest disabling the following:
- “Chrome PDF Viewer” and “Adobe Reader 9” - I don’t like to be surprised with PDFs in my browser. If I want to view a PDF, I’ll just download it like any other file and then use a PDF viewer application to view it. PDF plug-ins tend to take a while to load, plus this way you can be surprised with carefully-crafted, malicious PDF files.
- “Microsoft® DRM” - What the hell is this thing? I certainly haven’t used it until now, so why should it be enabled?
- “Java 6” - Java takes a while to load and allows embedded Java to run like a native app, making it a security risk. I barely use Java anyway, so if I ever run into a case where I absolutely need to use Java, and the widget is safe, I’ll enable it.
Plug-ins can be dangerous and pose a security risk due to various exploits that keep getting discovered every now and then. That is why it is recommended to disable those you don’t or won’t use. (Or ones that are more vulnerable to hacks than others, like PDF plug-ins.)
I bet he’d tell you he’s the greatest Superhero ever.
R.U.S.E. Won't Use Ubisoft PC DRM, Will Be Playable Offline Thanks To Steam
Ubisoft confirmed today that thanks to Valve’s Steam platform, the publisher’s upcoming strategy game R.U.S.E. will be playable offline, thereby sidestepping Ubisoft’s oft criticized DRM protection.
“When R.U.S.E. is released in September,” Ubisoft senior community developer Aymeric Evennou posted on the game’s official forums, “it will benefit from Valve’s Steamworks API to offer the best community experience to players. Consequently, a Steam account and Internet connection will be required to activate the game, as per Steam policy. For this reason, R.U.S.E. will not use the Ubisoft protection. Single player can be played offline.”
Ubisoft has been dealing with the fallout of its decision to introduce PC security protections that require a constant internet connect to play offline since the release of Assassin’s Creed II back in March. Shortly thereafter, Ubisoft’s servers were hacked, preventing some ACII players from being able to play the game.
It will be interesting to see whether Ubisoft will run into the same problem it had with ACII and Silent Hunter 5 when it tries to release R.U.S.E. on Steam in the UK. I guess we’ll find out for sure when the game releases next month. I’m waiting to hear back from Ubisoft about it, so stay tuned.
YES! This is the beginning of the end to Ubisoft’s ridiculous “Online Platform” DRM scheme.
Mass Effect (and Red Dead Redemption) meets Toy Story
I came across this hilarious crossover from Kotaku:
And in the comments, I found these gems:
BioShock Infinite was recently announced by Irrational Games, the geniuses behind the first BioShock. Being a diehard BioShock fan, I acted how you would expect: I freaked out. (In the good way!)
Infinite is a prequel that takes place in Columbia, a steampunk city floating in the sky, at 1918. Yes, the BioShock franchise is leaving Rapture! As much as I loved Rapture, I do think it’s time to leave it. 2K Marin still managed to make great use of Rapture in BioShock 2, but they were squeezing the last drops. We all know Rapture already, using it once more will not do any good to the franchise. It was a genius move to replace Rapture with the entirely opposite Columbia: up in the sky versus down in the sea, visible to all and a symbol of humanity’s technological progress versus hidden to everyone and secret & brutal and harsh versus “calm” and bright. In addition, Infinite’s Columbia is just as amazing and exceptional as Rapture. It’s not as scary, but it’s seems like the best replacement.
In Infinite people don’t attack you unless you stir up trouble. They don’t just jump on you like they don’t like the shirt you’re wearing, as seen in the first game. In addition, the scuba-diving Big Daddies are replaced by much scarier, mechanical steampunk giants powered by what appears to be a human heart. Also, according to the story you are an agent sent to Columbia to track down Elizabeth, a woman who was kidnapped and is held prisoner in Columbia ever since she was a child. This brings me to the next point - in Infinite, you gain a companion: Elizabeth! The two of you combine your Plasmid powers to unleash devastating attacks on your enemies and progress through the game. The rest of these changes can be found on Shacknews’s (excellent) article “BioShock Infinite Reveal Preview”.
Being a diehard fan, there’s already a 90% chance I’ll pre-order this game. Sadly, we’ll have to wait until 2012 to get it. :-(
P.S.: I see a “Games for Windows” logo but I don’t see the “LIVE” logo! Yay!
I hate EA Support.
A week ago, I finished playing Mass Effect. I liked the game very much, and tried the demo for Mass Effect 2 afterwards. I couldn’t wait to play Mass Effect 2, and looked it up on Steam. “Still at $49.99?” - A month or two ago, Mass Effect 2 was dropped to $39.99, but not in Steam’s Israeli region, and it annoyed me. But this time, I checked again, and what do you know - it’s now $29.99 in Steam’s US region!
I decided to do something about it, so I started a live chat with EA Support. In it I explained the situation, and they said they would bring my issue to someone higher to look into. During that time, they claimed Steam was a retail store (lie - I left a URL and stated Steam is a digital distribution platform by Valve), that they are not in charge or prices (lie - I stated Steam Support has redirected people to publishers when they complained about prices), that they don’t know what I’m talking about, and even tried to “bribe” me (in a way) with a $20 coupon for the EA Store. Why yes, EA: I’ll take your coupon for a store I never use! Games downloaded from the EA Store contain SecuROM, and on top of that, Steam’s download network is more reliable, so why not buy on Steam? In addition: the coupon does not work. And they’ve yet to activate it yet. (The coupon was sent nearly a week ago.) [EDIT: A live chat support rep was kind enough to create a new coupon, so at least I have that. Yay!]
Over 12 emails (in total - 6 by EA) later, they quietly admit that they are in charge of the prices, but screw me over by saying EA Support can’t do anything about it:
Greetings,
Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.
Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately this is outside of the realm of customer support, so I won’t be able to give you the specific answer you’re desiring. However, I’ve sent a request for information regarding this, and if I do get word back, I can relay that to you. Thanks!
If you have any further questions or concerns please reply to this email or visit our extensive knowledge base online at http://support.ea.com.
Thank you,
Danny K
EA Online Support
That’s it? I paid EA thousands of shekels, or maybe even over a thousand dollars, over the past 10 years and they treat me this bad? I bought every The Sims expansion pack, all but two expansions for The Sims 2, pre-ordered The Sims 3 and stood in line on the morning of release day and bought The Sims 2 for the full retail price at a pre-release event, and this is the treatment I get?
Some of you might think they will eventually resolve this, since the rep said he sent a request. Well, that’s bullshit. After over 8 different issues with EA Support didn’t get resolved and were treated just as bad, I can guarantee you they will not try to resolve the issue. Even if that request was sent, the executive recipient will not give a damn. The fact the “compensation coupon” didn’t work and wasn’t fixed yet as of this writing is additional proof that EA Support are not going to help me.
[Electronic Arts logo used according to fair use under United States copyright law.]
Infinity Linden is busy
Sing this to Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up:
We’re no strangers to agni
You know the terms of service and so do I
A full commitment’s what’s I’m thinking of
You wouldn’t get this from any other LindenI just wanna tell you how I’m feeling
Gotta make you understandNever gonna lose your prims
Never gonna grief your sim
Never gonna get laggy and disconnect you
Never gonna crash your mac
Never gonna steal your lindens
Never gonna ignore your PJIRAs
[The song continues at the link! Just click the title]
