• 13Jun 08

  Fact vs Assertion: the Internet's downside?

  Topic: Politics

  Aside from having ALL of my game time being wholy consumed by MGS4, I still have time for Politics..... but hey... give me some slack, I'm an old gamer.

  Let me start off by saying that I love having the internet, and that I remember and was a member of the comunity when there were less than one million web pages in existance. What I want to rant about now is politics, as much as it is about Fact versus Asertion. My thesis is that the internet promotes Asertion over Fact in so many places, that there is no longer a difference. Wow!

  In this day and age, blogs, and web sites are as common as Starbucks, they are everywhere. There are so many web sites saying "hey did you hear what Candidate X said today...." that there is no possibility to do proper fact checking! For all of you younger than generation X, each and every news paper had a "fact checking" department, and before paper x ran a story it went through the fact checking department to make sure that they "got it right." In the past, news papers were considered a real source of "news", but (and here is MY asertion in this rant) my buddy recently told me that "...national paper X and Y have gotten rid of their "fact checking" departments, because they are more concerned with getting the headline out in print First, than it being Accurate."

  My greater point is that web sites all over are "presenting statements" as Fact all over the internet when they are really making Asertions! It is left up to the individual to determine if the information is fact or fiction... If you read something from a web site, how do you know that you can trust what they have printed is Fact, or just an Asertion? My fear is that the masses of Americans don't take the time to really find out the facts, and we could end up with the most liberal President ever, which is Not where Most Americans are, and will Not be Right for the country.

  phew... ok Back to MGS4

  • Posted Jun 13, 2008 9:20 pm PT
  • Category: Other
  • 1 Comment
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 10Feb 08

  PlayStation 3 Hard Drive Upgrade

  With all the games, videos, and demos that I have downloaded and all the CDs that I have put on it, I was about out of free space. It was time to upgrade, and by that I mean go big!

  I replaced the original PS3 60GB with a huge 320GB drive that resulted in 298GB available after the formatting. It was an easy process, and the new drive rocks. Thanks to Sony for the forward thinking to allow us to upgrade our own hard drives, and doing so now, will allow you to get the new 3Gb/s SATA interface too.

  GameSpot's 'How to Upgrade Your PlayStation 3 Hard Drive' was helpful, however I strongly suggest that it incorrectly states "Both 5400- and 7200-RPM drives should work fine." Technically the PS3 will be unaware of the spindle speed of the hard drive, so yes, a 7200 rpm drive would work. However, 7200 rpm drives generate more heat, and will not be as quiet. The PS3 was designed to dissipate the heat generated from a 5400 rpm drive, for that reason alone I strongly suggest that people stick to the 5400 rpm drive specification.

  The original PS3 60GB is a Segate Momentus 5400.2, which has an SATA 1.5Gb/s interface. 8MB cache, 12.5ms average seek and 5.6ms average latency. The Segate can sustain 150MB/s transfer rates. It is a nice 2.5-inch hard drive.

  The new drive is a 2.5-inch Western Digital Scorpio model WD3200BEVT. It has a faster SATA 3Gb/s interface, which will allow for sustained transfer rates of up to 300MB/s! 3Gb/s is the next generation of SATA interface. The WD Scorpio has an 8MB cache, 12ms average seek and 5.5ms average latency timing. With the 3Gb/s interface, the transfer rates will have better performance without question; however it does get very technical as to where this performance gain can be realized, particularly on our PS3's. That said, small (8MB or less) sequential reads and writes should be much faster. Will we notice it when playing, or using the PS3, that is hard to say?

  The WD Scorpio claims to have one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives on the market, and I'd have to agree with them. You can't hear this drive over the fans, as you couldn't hear the Segate. The PlayStation 3 remains nice and quiet.

  Before I began the upgrade, I used the Settings >>> SystemSettings >>> Backup Utility to backup everything I had. After that was complete I followed the 'How to Upgrade Your PlayStation 3 Hard Drive' found here on GameSpot. It really is as easy as it looks, as long as you use the right size of Phillips head screw driver. Once the new hard drive was in the system, as the guide says the PlayStation 3 will format the new drive for you. Once that was complete, and after a reboot I went back to the Settings >>> SystemSettings >>> Backup Utility to do the Restore of the data I had backed up earlier. Everything went back into place just as it was on my original 60GB. Upgrade complete, and everything checks out and works as it should.

  Want more information on the new SATA 3Gb/s Interface, get it from the specification organization itself at http://www.sata-io.org/3g.asp

  Want to check out the drive that I bought, it's here at newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136197

  • Posted Feb 10, 2008 12:27 pm PT
  • Category: Technology
  • 0 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 31Dec 07

  Finished Game: Assassin's Creed

  SPOILERS Warning!

  Last night I finished Assassin's Creed. It was a very good game, and turned out to have more of a plot twist than I had originally expected. Part of the reason for this blog entry is to add a link that I want to keep for future reference, which explains everything gleaned post credits. I spent a long time looking around the laboratory using my 'Eagle Vision' and even took pictures of my HDTV with my Cyber-shot. Maybe those pictures will end up in my Images collection here at GameSpot... yeah maybe.

  I also spent a lot of time in the game collecting flags and taking out all the Templars, that for the PS3 version does not do anything for you. It would have been nice if they unlocked some kind of media. Suggestion: When you finish a game,it generate an image with your stats, or some kind of completed message that we PS3ers can use to put up in our PS3home once it comes out.

  Anyway, CVG Blog: Assassin's Creed Ending Explained is an Xbox site that has a nice detailed article about the end game information found post credits that sets up the next installment of the Assassin's Creed series. Despite it being a AAA title that needed a patch (Rassa Frassa!) I will certainly be playing the next one.

  • Posted Dec 31, 2007 12:01 pm PT
  • Category: Games
  • 0 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet

See Previous Blog Posts »