Andrew the Hopeless Techie – A techie lost in the mesh of reality

Inspiration for new content?

March 10, 2021 0 Comments

For several years since having this blog, I have added content ranging from Life updates to my take on Linux distributions, as you may have noticed my frequency with which this content is updated is unpredictable at best. My goal from the start was always to just post what was on my mind and hope others found it somewhat interesting, the reality it seems is much more complex than I originally anticipated. So the new focus was on trying to bring my point of view (for what it’s worth) on things around me (I.E politics, technology, and so on), but this to was problematic as the internet became flooded with people who have much more valued opinions then Myself. It became clear the only way to continue to use this platform for anything other than a stream of consciousness for my mind was to find new and interesting ideas, this is where offshoots like the Category 5 fan blog came from, however, due to time constraints I was not able to see shows live and it became near impossible to keep that site up and a full-time job.

So I am turning to what few people actually come across this blog for ideas, I have an accompanying forum thread which I would prefer suggestions be made as this allows for searching and archival of responses a bit better than the comment system here. I am getting ahead of myself however and will get back to that bit more later, for now, I want to throw out a few ideas and get your take on them as well as any original ideas you might have.

Idea number 1: Continue to try and post about my experiences with Linux or Windows and try to give an honest down to earth view point on both of those areas. I would try to do at least 1 if not 2 or more blog entries a week on this topic and try to really drill down my point of view, I enjoy using both Linux and Windows and this would give me an option to engage more in those areas. The draw back to this idea (at least on my intial view of it) is that things may be to opinionated and sometimes seem less informative and more reaching for content.

Idea number 2: Treat this as more a day in the Life kind of blog and just write about my experiences through the day this would generate genraly smaller posts but more of them typicaly one a day, the content would be very opinionated as it would essentialy be a stream of conciousness of my thoughts for the day on things I have done. While this idea seems to be the one to generate the most content to me it also seems to be the one that would also generate the most drama related to people with differing opinions. Its not my first choice and regardless of what direction i end up taking this blog key events and things i deem noteworth will get mentioned anyway this just would generate much more content in between chunks people may find interesting (I live a largely uninterasting normal life ).

Idead number 3: I am not going to lie this one might be my least favorite option and generate the most controversy among readers. I would scour the news sites and technology sites and try to give a run down of whats going on and my thoughts on these things once a week. It would kind of be like a week in review, only instead of focusing on one topic it would encompass all aspects that affect me from Politics to Technology. I have views on both of those that may not sit well with some people but I am willing to share my thoughts on the topics I find through out the week, I want to make it cear however this would likely generate the most negative push back from people specificaly those politicaly opposed to my view points.

Well, there you have it those are my 3 ideas I am open to additional ideas as well and would love your guy’s feedback on which you prefer if any from the 3 above. I am not expecting a huge response from this but I thought I would put it out there because I myself and not really sure which direction I want to go. Again please use the forum thread to discuss this topic so we can get better content filtering for this. Normally I am all for using the comments system here but given the interaction I want to give to this discussion, I feel a Forum thread more appropriate for this. Click Here to go to the Forum Thread

General Stuff, Writting

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Future of this Blog

May 7, 2023 0 Comments

Its no secret that I have not posted much if at all in the last year, I am not sure what to populate my blog with I am open to suggestions if you guys know of anything please let me know otherwise i may just retire this blog all together and just update it only when and if i figure out what i want to do with it.

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Linux, Windows and the ever-changing world of Operating Systems

June 7, 2020 0 Comments

Introduction

The term Operating System refers to the software used by a Hardware device to allow the user to interface with hardware and other software suites. Among these Operating Systems, often referred to as OS for short, many different varieties exist. Among these variations 4 Specific varieties are most popular, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and Mac OS.

Among even these 4 primary OS variants they are even subvariants and other deviations based on the main OS. A perfect example of this is Linux which is a Variant itself from the UNIX OS which is not as popular as it was at the time Linux was created. From Linux, different variations or distributions as they are called in the Linux Community exist which either add specific functionality or features to Linux or are target at being more secure or as small as possible so they can be embedded in devices like computers in cars and the like.

The above statement is an overall simplification of what Linux is but going into depth would be an entire post all on its own and the purpose of the paragraph above is to give a brief understanding of Linux. If you would like more information on Linux specific to what it is or how it works differently then say Windows you can google this as a wealth of information to this topic exists.

Windows is probably what most people who use a computer are familiar with it holds the largest share of the OS market as of the time I am writing this post. Again the point here is not to go into the background of Windows plenty of information already exists to this point. One thing that is important to point out though, is that due to its large market share a majority of Games and software are coded for Windows (though MacOS has a version of most of the same key software). This fact is what keeps most businesses from switching to a free alternative such as Linux.

You may have noticed I did not mention MacOS in much Detail above and this is because there are mountains of information comparing Windows to Mac OS online and me adding to that pile seemed irrelevant.

This brings me to the point of this post (I know a long-winded build-up), how Linux and Windows (along with a few others I mentioned above) have changed from the point of view of a consumer and not so much a developer (because I am far from one) or IT professional.

For the sake of making it easier to type future references to the Operating System may simply be referred to as OS.

Notable Changes

Linux

Linux I would say has undergone the biggest change here given its roots and what it is now, everyone uses it weather you realize it or not, how you use it may differ from person to person.

Without going into the entire history lets just say Linux when it was conceived was not very friendly to anyone other than developers and required a health understanding of the command line. It has undergone significant improvements in this area and now the average user could if they so chose to sit down at a Linux desktop and never touch the command line.

Variations of Linux such as Ubuntu have made this even easier taking a lot of the complex tweaking out of sight of the end-user allowing a more “it just works” type of experience out of the box. As this makes Linux more accessible to more people manufacturers start to see the value in adding support for Linux and some even start coding drivers to make their hardware work on Linux which in turn makes Distributions like Ubuntu even better and more seamless.

As is typical in Linux there are multiple flavors of Ubuntu and even some Distributions that are spun off Ubuntu. This may seem at first glance that it is rather redundant and in some aspects Chaotic, well if it was done poorly this would be the case for sure. I only mention this because the Debian Based Distro I will be talking about here is PoP_OS which is based on Ubuntu but has some notable differences. For the use of talking about Red Hat-based systems, I will use either Fedora 32 or CentOS 8. As the name implies Fedora and CentOS 8 are based on Red Hat and Ubuntu on Debian.

Linux is a very powerful tool and the more time that goes by the better it gets, now most of my use cases are supported by Linux something that just 10 years ago was very shotty. Ubuntu has even reached out to Microsoft and has co-developed a feature allowing you to run a Ubuntu shell on Windows. While this feature right now is primarily useful to developers they are slowly starting to add more and more features to it making Windows have an almost entirely feature-rich Subsystem.

The new subsystem should not be confused with a full Linux kernel as it lacks some of the more advanced features of a full-fledged Linux system. This brings us to the section of Windows something of a controversial topic as of late, we will dip into that a bit below.

Windows

I will briefly touch on this as most everyone who has used a computer in the past 10 years has at some point come in contact with some version of Windows.

While generally Windows had taken a more traditional software approach and released a new full release every 2-4 years, it has lately moved to a more modern approach both with its ups and downs. While Linux on the other had remained ever changing the core way to acquire and use it has not changed much over the years.

When Windows first entered the scene there was a command-line OS called DOS (Disk Operating System), back in those days HDD (Hard Disk Drives) was not common and in fact often cost quite a bit for a, by today’s standards, laughable storage size. You need to remember that back in these days computer code was small and in fact, an entire OS could be booted from a 1.4mb Floppy Disk (or less in the beginning), so many PCs (Personal Computers) were shipped with either 2 3.5″ floppy drives or one 5.25″ and one 3.5″ drive. This allowed for one drive to be able to boot the OS and the other for loading programs like a Word Processor or early game.

Fast forward to Windows 95, this was the first version of Windows that did not rely on DOS being installed and loading Windows from the command line as all previous versions did. While Windows 3.1 for example had the option to load automatically at the start of the machine it still relied on DOS to boot. Windows 95 did not entirely get rid of DOS in fact due to the small nature of DOS it was a core part of Windows 95 and in fact, would not be until Windows NT which eventually merged with 98 and gave us the disaster that was Vista (the pre-cursor to Windows 7).

As times changed DOS was slowly stripped out of the Windows Kernel all together in place was a Terminal which emulated DOS commands so that core commands could be done as though it was DOS, for example, listing a directories contents with the “dir” command or listing all directories inside your current director with “dir /w”.

This change from DOS to the NT Kernel (as I have come to call it) was not without issues, several programs build for windows 95, 98, or ME were reliant on DOS and were not optimized for NT. It’s worth noting that the NT kernel had been around in workstation and enterprise versions of Windows for several years it was not until Windows Vista (as mentioned earlier) that this was migrated to the Core Windows suite.

If we fast forward another few years we get Windows 10 which attempts to make a familiar-looking OS with new elements, for example, it uses the Desktop feature similar to Windows 7 but adds dynamic tiles to the start menu it calls Live Tiles. It’s also worth noting this was a result of user complaints at the radical new direction they attempted to go with Windows 8 and later slightly improved with 8.1. The biggest change with Windows 10 (and there are a ton of small and drastic improvements not worth mentioning unless you’re a software enthusiast) is that for a long time it was offered as a Free upgrade to Windows 7.

This may seem like a goodwill gesture on the part of Microsoft, however, there was a very strategic reason why they made Windows 10 so easy to obtain, some of which I will touch on but given the drastic amounts of changed from Windows 8.1 to 10, I will only touch on the most jarring or noticeable changes.

First, there are three ways a company like Microsoft can make money off an OS. The traditional way which Microsoft did for all their previous versions, this method involves selling major versions as new Versions of any OS. For example, Windows 95, 98, ME, 7, and 8 are all considered new versions. This method gives the developer a boost in cash for each version it releases which allows for a jump start to the development of improvements and iterations of new versions.

Second, is the version that Linux and many other Open Source projects use, Corporate sponsorships or donations by the community. This type of model does not require the consumer to pay anything upfront instead they focus on donations and trying to get corporate sponsors or selling support packages to larger companies deploying their OS on a large number of computers.

Third, the method Microsoft uses on Windows 10 is to give the OS away free at the firs to the consumer. This is monetized by gathering data on the user that is used to advertise or sell to other companies in an effort to make money. This is a controversial method because your privacy as a consumer is often brought into question. While later in the release cycle they do sell the OS for around $120 a pop they still collect your information. It’s possible to disable some of this data collection but if you really want to disable most of it you need to be proficient in registry editing and tweaking, however, this is often reversed by updates released to fix/update features and bugs in the OS.

Closing Thoughts

So as you can see from y brief summary tons of things have changed in the OS market allowing us to get where we are. As Linux changes and closes the gap between Windows and itself the choice between which one you use comes down to small things like Gaming or very specific software needs.

While Linux is becoming closer in terms of Gaming to Windows there is still a lot of work in this area that needs to be done. Businesses can however use a lot of tools that are open source on Linux to do their everyday jobs and save 100s if not thousands on licensing fees. The future of OS improvement all around is exciting as these improvements whether perceived or not play greatly into what you see every time you boot up your machine.

Next time you start your computer whether it be Windows, Linux, or Mac OS takes a second to appreciate the amount of software and hardware engineering involved with getting to where we are now.

Disclaimer: I am not a developer of any software listed below opinions are my own and this article was written over several days (given my schedule) so I have done my best to make sure it is consistent any suggestions or spelling errors can be put on the forums quick comments can be made below in-depth discussion should be done on the forums by clicking the link in this disclaimer. I encourage you to do your own research and dive into either of these OS yourself you may be surprised by what you find. If you find any of my information to be in error please constructively mention it in the forums and I will do my best to address it.

Android, Computers, Fedora, Linux, Non-Specific, Ubuntu

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New Forum System and Updates

April 27, 2020 0 Comments

Well, now that I have finally gotten my site back up I figured let’s start utilizing it more, for this reason, I have added forum allowing you to have conversations with myself or other subscribers.

You should be able to log in on the forums using a number of different platforms. I only ask that you please use the same login if you return for future logins. Instead of making several different accounts. If you want to visit them you can click the link at the top of this page or click here

Enough about the forums though what has been up with me aside from the site issues? Well not to get too personal with my life but, I have recently lost my job and now I am looking to expand my job prospects and even considering some self-employment options. I will spare you the details on this as it is likely not something most care about however, this means I should be able to post more frequently and hopefully get this blog back up to speed.

In General I now have alot more time to think about what to do with my life now that I am once again looking for work, looking optimisticaly this could potientialy be a good thing down the road and I plan to do my best to make it one.

More things are planned for this site coming up and while I am not quite to where I am ready to share them yet, it hopefully will be what this site needs to spring back to life. I welcome any suggestions you might have leave them in the forums (link at the top of the page) and I promise to give them the attention they deserve.

Well thats it for now a short update I know but hopefully I will have more to share soon that will be a bit more lengthy. In the meantime stay safe and keep flattening the curve.

General Stuff

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Website back Up

April 26, 2020 0 Comments

As some of you may or maynot have been aware I had a bit of trouble with PHP and gettting wordpress to work, I have since fixed this issue with the help of my hosting provider and this site should work as normal again.

Thank you for sticking with me if you tried to visit during this time things should go a lot smoother now. More content to come very soon.

General Stuff

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Fragmented Viewing – Streaming Service Nightmares

November 24, 2019 0 Comments

Some groundwork being Laid

It is no secret that the world of entertainment consumption changes to keep up with the times, after all, Netflix disrupted the established norm for home viewing and essentially killed (or took part in killing) established norms like Blockbuster Video. With that knowledge should it come as any surprise that Netflix is in turn being disrupted by niche streaming services? I am getting ahead of myself though so let me start at the beginning.

For years after the rise of giant Netflix companies have tried to tobble the giant by making their own version of an true digital experience for consuming content. Out of all the competitors, the biggest ones to gain any kind of foothold were Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. However, none of them offered direct competition as the content providers for these services oftentimes would license content to all 3 streaming service.

Netflix was not always the streaming giant that it is now though, once upon a time they were a DVD mailing service one Blockbuster I am sure saw little to no threat from. It was not until Netflix decided to focus a majority of its time and resources into becoming the Streaming service it is now that Blockbuster started to worry and subsequently would relent to. Sure they tried to stay relevant by starting their own DVD mailing service for a while, ultimately it failed resulting in a void in the home entertainment market.

Hulu came about as a way to allow traditional Television networks to host their content in a digital platform without maintaining their own Digital infrastructure, something which at the time was largely needed. Over time both Netflix and Hulu branched out and began making their own content in an effort to stay relevant as Networks were now experimenting with VOD platforms allowing their shows to be viewed a week sometimes a day after it aired on TV. Amazon, of course, followed suit with their own original content and so the start of the digital entertainment empire began.

Now for several years we got Netflix and Amazon basically dishing out tons of original content while continuing to make digital access to other studios content easier for the masses. Hulu would occasionally release an original series but had nowhere near as much success as the two giants in the new emerging industry. As the studios watched the success of these three main entries into the Digital space they secretly began to make plans that would result in the eventual creation of several streaming services specific to their IP (Intellectual Property).

Rise of studio-specific streaming services

It started slow of course and oftentimes free, as we got services like CW Seed, a streaming service that was add supported but allowed old shows WB and the CW had either abandon or canceled to be revived in a digital format for consumption. Over time they started adding old movies as well and toyed with small run animated series that were based on their popular tv shows like The Flash and Arrow.

As time went on the larger studios behind the characters in these shows began to see the benefit of an online presence that was unique. Slowly rumors of things like DC Universe and Disney Plus became more frequent, eventually resulting in those services becoming reality. Each service offered something that you could not get from the giants like Amazon or Netflix, such as digital forms of comic books or concept art included with your subscription to these services. DC Universe, for example, offers access to most of their DC-related movies and content (with the exception of stuff they have licensed out like The Flash tv show which ironically is on CW which is part of DC) as well as a huge backlog of comic books in digital form free of charge to those who subscribe to the service.

For a while these services were not as disruptive as they might have seemed at first glance, enter Disney Plus. Disney Plus, however, was disruptive before it even launched just the idea of it coming caused concern among fans that content related to Disney IP would be pulled from existing platforms such as Netflix in favor of their own service. By this point shows like Luke Cage and Jessica Jones were popular on Netflix as they were Netflix original creations but the characters belonged to Marvel which was purchased by Disney.

You may be able to see where this is going, after a few years Disney pulled the plug on a lot of their licensing deals with 3rd parties such as Netflix quietly preparing for the giant that would become Disney Plus. Shows that we as fans had grown to love (or hate depending on your views on the later seasons) were canceled and pulled from Netflix and no explanation was officially given while the general consicous was Disney Plus. This went further than Netflix however, shows that were slated to be made were later canceled for again mysterious purposes, shows like the Ghost Rider series that was supposed to launch on Hulu starring Gabriel Luna’s version of the character as first shown on Agents of Shield.

Again Disney stays quiet on the reasoning for this not wanting to admit what fans had suspected (though we have not been able to confirm), Disney Plus! All of this is happening and Disney Plus is still a year or so away from launching, it is having this much of a polarizing effect and it is not even launched yet at this point. Fast forward to November 12th, 2019, Disney Plus is unleashed on the world. So far it has been everything Disney claimed it would be allowing access to almost all of their IP including several Animated Classics. The Launch did not go without its own issues however but that is beyond the scope of this post.

Around this time we have started getting what I call Micro streaming services starting up by the premium TV channel companies like HBO and Starz. These are all at first welcomed additions as it allows people who have canceled their cable to watch content originally only viewable through these channels. However lately they have branched out into a separate streaming service altogether (different from the one you purchase to watch shows online from the actual channels) such as HBO Now.

Content goes Service Jumping

Now, this is where it gets confusing and frankly irritating, Content platforms such as DC Universe (a paid service remember) start offloading their shows to other streaming services! I am not a huge business guy so I am sure from some weird marketing/Business perspective this makes sense, however, Taking a show such as the Doom Patrol (exclusive to DC Universe well for season 1 anyway) and moving it off one paid streaming service to another new paid streaming service for season 2 is well insane. DC wants you to buy their service to watch the first season of this show and then pay HBO for their service to watch season 2, while this is the only show I know of to do this so far it may not be the last.

In a similar fashion but not quite as annoying, is the new show set to start airing in Q2 of 2020 Stargirl. This show will premier on DC Universe but the next day shows up on the CW like its cousins The Flash, Supergirl and the like. This does not bother me quite as much as it allows for those who may not want to pay to see it on DC Universe the chance to see it on the CW, what is kind of annoying about this is it dilutes the benefit of having paid for DC Universe. Sure there is other content that makes the subscription worth it to people however if this kind of movement becomes a trend it would be both a blessing and curse, It would help those who can not afford the service but weaken the reasons behind continuing to pay for the subscription.

Closing Thoughts

All of this is my roundabout way of saying that the sheer number of streaming services that are rising up can end up making the decision to cut the cord with cable and go online only more expensive than just sticking with cable. As more and more studios launch their own streaming services places like Netflix will become more of a collection of random movies no one needs or really ever wants to see or maybe will result in more original content.

I welcome a few streaming services but when my list of subscription services (or potential ones) becomes longer than 3-5 then, in my opinion, there is an issue. Until someone comes up with a way to pay one Reasonable subscription fee and gain access to all these streaming services I may just have to limit our households to 3.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with the above? Let me know below let us start a real conversation about where you think Digital content consumption is going.

The above comments are my own personal opinions and should not be taken as the way everyone looks at the situation. I encourage you to do your own research and make your own opinions.

Full Disclosure for the sake of transparency, I currently subscribe to Hulu, DC Universe, Disney Plus and Netflix. I have access to a few streaming services like HBO and Showtime that came with my cable subscription, I do not subscribe to HBO Now or any other similar micro streaming service.

General, General Stuff, Shows

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Legion

June 15, 2018 0 Comments

WARNING: the below contains spoilers for the FX series Legion if you have not watched it be warned plot points will be talked about below a few paragraphs into the article.

I have to admit most new tv these days is becoming less and less interesting as it becomes more watered down for the P.C (Politically Correct) crowd. Increasingly it follows a more cookie-cutter approach to the plot that is often predictable and in the end boring.

Even with this approach some shows still grab my interest, Arrow, Flash, Super-girl just to name a few. Also, I do enjoy a few non-traditional shows ones I call mold-breakers like Doctor Who for example. Another example of a mold-breaking show and the one this article is about is called Legion on FX here in the states (not sure the partner channels in other countries).

From the beginning, this show has intrigued me and at times confused me with its very non-linear perspective and narrative. While the show has just wrapped season 2 and one would assume has begun planning/shooting season 3, it still has an amazing story that keeps you interested from day one and always leaves you wanting to know just what is going. When it finally reveals what is happening, it only leaves you with more questions.

Season 2 was the embodiment of this with its constant time jump showing future Sid contradicting what past Sid was doing/saying. This coupled with the increasingly confusing relationship of Amahl Farouk (A.K.A the shadow king) to David, at times it’s a fatherly feeling relationship at other times its a nemesis feeling relationship.

The season focused on two points early on, where David had Disappeared to at the end of Season 1 and his true motives for wanting to find Farouk’s Body. Consistently they show future Sid throughout the first part of the season warning David that regardless of what her past self-states Amahl needs to be revived in an effort to help solve some crisis in the future, purposely being vague with David it creates a sense of mystery about her true motives.

Slowly, you begin to question just weather David is a good guy (spoiler alert if you read the comics he does go evil for a bit), David himself has no doubts about his intentions and very much views himself as the victim. If you have watched season 1 you as the viewer might start sympathizing with David, this is by design and part of the genius about how this series is written.

When writing a multi-dimensional character like David that also happens to have multiple personalities, its I imagine would be most difficult to show which person is the core or true personality. For Season 1 we see him struggle with Farouk trying to control him and later we see him struggling with his fractured mind trying to retain control of himself. With a being as powerful as David, violate his trust or betray him and it is possible for him to become a serious threat. This is what brings me to the meat of this article his ultimate arc through the season and the place he was left at the end.

Leading up to the Finale we witness his friends start to question his true motives and become guarded, Eventually leading to their betrayal of his trust which as mentioned above is not the best option regarding a being this powerful. To be fair David does some questionable and very bad things in the last episode, however, the fallout of that to me seems a bit out of place.

After his battle with Farouk he is threatened by Sid who then tries to kill him, he then tries to erase her memory and proceeds to rape her. Again, this is a horrible act by David and should be dealt with, what does not make sense is that in the next few scenes, David is put on trial by Sid and the entire Division 3 crew. Sid, the person who just hours ago tried to kill David is not trying to reason with him claiming his act of rape and future acts he has not yet committed justify their actions. The rape I get he should be punished for that but judging him on future crimes is a bit extreme, couple that with the fact that the entire season was about finding and destroying Farouk’s Body, they are now allies against David.

Somehow, the entire body of people who he thought his friends are not judging him on events he has not yet committed all the while ignoring that one of them tried to kill him just hours ago. Eventually, try to explain his actions and tells them he is a good person. They apparently feel pity for him but do not believe him so they suggest the one thing that they feel would help Medication and treatment, basically putting him back in the asylum.

This angers him and he makes one final plea to them to reconsider, thinking they have the upper hand they refuse. He then succumbs to the inner demons (his alternate more violent personality), Tells them they had their chance and begins to shake the building to break the barrier holding him. He is successful in his escape and leaves his former friends with the knowledge knowing they basically created the version of David they feared from the videos they received from the future.

Here is where I think the writing is brilliant, in trying to prevent David from becoming what they fear he will become they end up making him that version of himself. What I mean by this is by removing his support system (whether they realize it or not) and making it appear his friends had turned on him especially Sid who he loved, they ended up paying the way for his darker half to take control and begin his reign of torment which undoubtedly will be the premise of season 3. Whether Division 3 realizes this at first is not clear but from my perspective, everything they did to him coupled with what Farouk did to him has to lead him to this. It also was not helpful to have the one person he hates most in the world, the one who in essence killed his sister being there trying to justify their actions against him.

So, while the events may not have played out the exact same way they did in Future Sid’s timeline, he ultimately ended up in the same place. Also, the entire reason she started to suspect him was the way he was acting which they viewed as different, this was a direct result of Future Sid kidnapping him and making him swear not to reveal where he was. If you watch Doctor Who you undoubtedly know the term bootstrap paradox, this is very reminiscent of that by trying to warn past David what Future David would become she set in motion the events that would make David become what she feared in the future.

This leaves me with the question, if Future Sid had not interfered in the past would David still become the monster he is portrayed as in the future? It’s unclear whether this is the case, or even if the thought occurred to current day Sid and company after David disappeared.

I could go on and on but this again is why I love this show it makes you think and keeps you guessing it breaks the mold most shows use nowadays and I love it. What did you guys think of the finale or Legion, in general, is it as intriguing to you guys as it was to me?

General, General Stuff, Shows

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Netflix – Is it killing traditional Television?

March 3, 2018 0 Comments

We all have at one point or another turned on the TV and clicked through channels trying to find something interesting to watch, however fewer of the young generation remember what it was like when we only had 30 some channels or even when you had to get your tv through an antenna which would oftentimes cause the channels to not be as clear as they could be.

When cable was introduced it caused a paradigm shift that most people ended up adopting to the point that you would be lucky if you found anyone who still used Antenna based television by itself usually this would be paired with Satellite TV or cable. Eventually, TV became flooded with channels and suddenly you had tons of content to watch, the only question was what did you want to watch.

As time went on Over the air tv became even less common and was really only ever seen in rural communities where cable was not yet available. However, with all those channels people can access now we began having a different problem, suddenly there was nothing on! This is of course a false statement but one which again most of us have said, we have become so used to instant content that it no longer matters that we have hundreds of channels instead of just 30 or less.

Now in 2018 we are facing the blunt of another paradigm shift one in which cable is becoming more scarce and instant content platforms such as Netflix are taking center stage. When you can get most of the popular tv series and movies by using a combination of services that compliment each other, like Netflix and Hulu for example, it causes that feeling that nothing is on even more when you do click through your cable channels.

This movement to instant content has been a long time coming and really has been gaining speed since high speed internet has become more affordable. As internet speeds continue to increase, content will become even more readily available and thus the cycle will continue. This shift to me is much faster than the one from Over the Air TV as there are way more avenues to explore then when cable was introduced and the fact that most houses can  ironically use the same wiring they previously used to watch TV to get internet.

I am curious as to weather we will see the death of Traditional television in my lifetime, people are already joining the movement that has been coined Cable Cutting in an effort to reduce monthly bills is generally the instant content providers are free or cost a very reasonable monthly fee when compared to that of most cable companies.

Netflix being the king among content providers as of the time I am writing this article in March of 2018 , its a fair question to ask “Is Netflix killing traditional TV?” . In my opinion I think it is but its dying a slow death one in which we may not see the actualization of for several more years to come.

These are just my observations, I am curious what you guys think on this subject let me know.

 

General Stuff, Shows

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Christianity is becoming less forgiving and persecuting

June 3, 2015 0 Comments

Well I am going to do something I almost never do, talk about religion! Now before you leave this post thinking “great this is going to be another rant about God and how the world is going to hell”, Just wait its not that kind of post.

My whole life I have been raised to believe that God was the creator of all things and that we as his servants are supposed to be kind and help our fellow man (or woman). What I see in the news lately, however is proving disappointing and at times has made me question whether I am right to still call myself a Christian! Let me explain this a bit more so its not taken out of context, I am still a believer in God and Jesus, I just feel the word Christian has come to mean persecuting bigot instead of loving and helpful.

Now what I am about to say may offend some people (if I have not already done so), however that is not my intention, I mean only to explain why I feel things have changed and why I feel dirty when I call myself a Christian now. Lets start with the good things that have happened and go from there shall we?

New Pope elected

On March 13th 2013 Pope Francis began his Papacy, during his first few years things changed drastically in the church! Laws that were dated and sexist began to disappear and you saw the church as being more forgiving and kind then it had in years.

He was quickly known as the merciful Pope encouraging people to seek Mercy as much as possible just like Jesus did. Well without getting to preachy here it ended up making waves some good some bad he had views on Gay and Lesbian couples that most Catholic people would cringe at and accepted them as part of the church (in the sense that they are Christian not a part of the clergy) not caring how they chose to live their personal life.

War against anything not “Christian silently begins”

Which brings me to the bad, people began to set their sights on Gay and Lesbian couples throwing biblical passage after biblical passage at them to prove what they were doing was wrong.

While there is no passage in the bible that specifically states anything against gay or lesbians or trans or whatever other group people fall into. Sure you can interpret the passage about marriage being between a man and a woman as meaning that anything else would be a sin, the point however is that it is not specifically mentioned as a sin or a evil deed.

Now I am not saying you have to accept that what Gay or lesbians do as being acceptable, what I am saying is that they are people just like you or I and persecuting them for a part of their lifestyle is the same as saying you’re going to Hell because you wore plaid on a Sunday!

If you do not agree with their lifestyle choice, deal with it, it is their choice after all not yours! You would think this would be the only point of contention here but you would be mistaken.

Fast forward a few years and you get the current drama as it unfolds; USA Politicians in two states are trying to force religion on people blaming the entirety of our nations faults on the lack of spiritual education! Now I am neither a pastor nor a Politician, but look at less religious countries like England (yes they have religion but it is not as strong as it once was) that get along just fine without forcing religion on their people!

They also come to defense of Child molesters trying to say that the reason people have an issue with what Josh Duggar did (for example) is because he is anti-gay! I mean really I would like to think that most people have more common sense then this. I am not going to go on a political rant ethier as that is not the point of this blog post, the point is to show that religion specifically Christianity has become more about persecuting those who do not share your views then welcoming them with open arms and trying to enjoy life. There will be times when you do not agree with someone in life but does this mean you point a stick at them and tell them they are going to die in the pits of hell due to a life choice they made?

Lets take a quick stroll into US history shall we, During the 50’s Blacks and Whites were segregated and even the church tried saying that God hates Blacks and that is why they must be treated as such. Of course this was a small few but it gained enough momentum that businesses could deny service based on skin color! We have evolved past that and made laws preventing this kind of thing, however religion is not starting to put those walls up again! Maybe not in the same fashion as blacks and whites still are equal but now religion becomes the variable in which we choose to hide behind.

Several US businesses run by Christians refuse to serve Gay and Lesbian couples, or even Islamic or other religions just because they do not agree with either their life choice or religion! Now correct me if I am wrong but is this not the same thing we did in the 50’s to Blacks? You do not need to agree with the choices people make weather it is religion or a life choice to provide goods and services to them, at least this is how things used to be. As people become more and more focused on this way of thinking Christian becomes a word that means violent bigot who refuses to see reason and I do not want to be one of those people.

Full disclosure I am not gay but I do support gay rights as well as freedom of religion, I believe our country is supposed to honor freedom and not persecution. So you tell me am I wrong in thinking that the word Christian is slowly become more known with cruel segregationist (religion and life style) that will persecute you so much as look at you if your not thinking exactly what they are, or am I way off base?

I welcome comments I just ask you to first stop and think long and hard at how Religion has influenced the changes lately and while trying to keep a objectionable frame of mind respond letting me know what you think.

Remember Christianity is supposed to be about forgiveness and helping others not tearing them down because they are different then you!

General Stuff

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Assassin’s Creed IV – Black Flag

September 7, 2014 0 Comments

It’s no secret to anyone who may know me personally that I have never been a fan of the Assassin’s Creed game line, however on a whim I decided to add Black Flag to my Gamefly Game Q to try out. What I found out is this game to me is incredibly enjoyable and found myself spending way too much time playing the game, the sign of a well-crafted game.

I still am not too fond of the first or second games in the series but I do have a greater understanding for them now that I have played and beaten the 4th Game in the series. I did at the time it came out buy Assassin’s Creed 1 just never finished, I am considering going back and re-playing these games and see if I can find renewed enjoyment in the series I once found droll and boring.

Ok now that that gushing is out of the way let’s get into the nitty gritty and talk about what I liked and did not like about this game, I think you will find the list of Likes will outweigh the list of dislikes however you be the judge.

Things I enjoyed

  • Unique Gameplay for navigating the massive world – If you’re not familiar with this game you are playing the part of a pirate who oddly has a knack for killing people using stealth that has become the pinnacle of the series. You move from one Island to another using a pirate ship which you can upgrade to make it more deadly and engage in combat with computer NPC ships to loot resources of sink them out of spite and try to recover whatever little bit of the resources they carried that did not sink with them.
  • Ship Battles – As mentioned above these were new to this version and are extremely enjoyable, the game starts out making them very easy but they get progressively harder as the game moves on forcing you to upgrade your ship or play the reload game.
  • Legendary Ships – These are ships (sometimes 2 or more in a group) that have higher than normal armor and the damage output is higher as well, however to balance out the increased difficulty they also offer larger rewards if you manage to fel one of them. Watch out though it seems their favorite tactic is to ram you which do a surprising amount of damage even with the maximum amount of armor you can upgrade to.
  • Chase sequences – They have these in both the ship mode as well as on foot, and while these may have existed in other versions of the game I found that they were particularly enjoyable in this game. The game seemed to know when you’re chasing someone across roof tops and through crowds, as the AI would tend to clutter the NPCs more in your way or have more enemy’s looking to the roof tops to try and target you.
  • Shanties – Yes you can hear your ship’s crew sing authentic Pirate songs as them tend to the ship while sailing around the sea, you can increase the variety of songs they sing by chasing down music pages on Islands that will start blowing away when you come across them, catch them and your crew learns a new Shanti allowing for a wider variety of songs.
  • Private Island – Toward the beginning of the game you get an Island you took from the Spanish that you can upgrade allowing for your own private place to repair your ship or purchase upgrades that allow you to hire Drunk pirates in random cities as body guards, you can use these pirates to distract guards by using them as cannon fodder while you track the main target. You could also just have them follow you and take part in any battle you come across during your time on the Island. Normally these are able to be hired but with the upgrade on the Island they become free.

 

Now comes the ugly part, the things I found wrong with this game

Things I did not like at all

  • Story – While the idea for the story is nice, it’s bifurcated between the “simulation” and the real world. What I found most jarring is that they setup this huge plot line for the few scenes your actually in the real world and not engaged in the “simulation” then  play it down toward the end like it was all the ramblings of some crazy IT guy. Now this would have been fine if they did not go to lengths to make your playable character believe what he was actually telling you by showing you things you could not have seen if he was in fact crazy.
  • Touchy Controls – Sometimes when you need to be discreet and sneak up on an enemy the controller on the PS4 would mysteriously hit a button causing you to lunge or jump out of your hiding place which would set the alarm off blowing the whole stealth aspect. Now I know for a fact some of these were me being overzealous with the controls but there were a few times the control seemed to hit the buttons itself. I have not had this issue with other PS4 games so it would appear specific to this game.
  • Precision – Yes this related to the last point above, however it felt it needed a different point. When trying to climb up a wall or jump down and assassinate your target sometimes getting the target lined up right can be a tricky prospect. Again not sure if this is present on all versions of this game or just the PS4 version (which is what I used).
  • Poor story Development in DLC missions – There was a DLC released called Freedom where you play as the character that is your Quartermaster in the main game, Your told you will find out more about the man but are quickly brought to the reality that about 10 % of the DLC focuses on him while the rest seems to revolve around freeing the slaves and sighting a revolt among them. This is a good plot line but all in all it felt rushed and while they also had a ship segment like the main game, they seem to discourage pillaging ships and instead want you to get resources by liberating plantations which would be fine if they were as readily available.
  • Main Characters with names to similar to each other – I found it hard to follow the plot when you have to go from killing someone named Rogers, to Roberts and so on. It just makes it very confusing. You begin thinking to yourself “Roberts did I not kill him already?”

 

Bottom line here is that this game is worth getting second hand or renting through Gamefly or the like, however I find it hard to suggest buying it new as it just has way too many issues and for me anyway this game just is not worth the $50 (49.99) it costs to get it for next gen systems. I enjoyed the game so much I bought it from Gamefly after they sent it to me for $22 which was more of a reasonable price I think.

Due to how much I enjoyed this game I would seriously consider investing my time in future games in the series and maybe even going back to past titles in the series with renewed excitement. Yes this game is that good that it can turn someone who hated the series in to a possible fan of the series.

 

Assassin's Creed Series, Games, Ubisoft

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