Author: Tommy

This weekend, while in Longview, Jennifer and I visited another geocache in that area. It was relatively easy to find and was made out of a waterproof Army surplus ammo box.
This got me to thinking how easy it is to make and place a geocache. So, we went over to the local army surplus store and picked up a couple of ammo boxes of our own. Then went to Walmart to see what knick-knacks we could find to put in them. I took them back to Alpha Omega and spray painted them to help conceal their location when they are placed. We placed them Sunday afternoon and I logged their coordinates today.
So, two more geocaches are in the Longview vicinity if any of you are in that area and have a GPS.

Links to the two geocaches:

Trinity Bucket

Industrial Bucket

What the heck is a geocache? Visit www.GeoCaching.com for more info.

Grendel sez: Well, it appears we had a few geocachers find our ammo boxes. Nice to see someone actually went out in search of them! Click on the links above to see the comments for each cache.
Let us also hope it does not get blown up like this one in Indiana.

I tried to hold off buying the game until after the hype was over and the price came down. First of all, $55 is kinda pushing it. I know most games come out around $50. So why the $5 increase?
Do we get a nice hard-plastic protective jewel case to hold all 5 CDs in? no.
Do we get an extra-cool full-color manual in the box? no. Do we get a manual at all? no So why am I paying an additional $5 for a game that comes with less than most others?

Ok, so I got the game. Went to Best Buy with my older brother, who was ready to get it. Don't get me wrong, I was excited about the improved graphics and physics, just wasnt' chomping at the bit to get the game.
Finally, after a while, I get it installed - all 5 CDs worth. Then, I have to resetup my Steam account (*rant to come at a later date). Steam starts up, tries to authenticate with their overloaded servers, and eventually lets me play the game. The graphics are very nice. The animation is the best I've seen in a game, and the game physics are equally impressive. I could go on and on about the physics and graphics, but I'll just leave it at.
The gameplay is alot the same as HL1, but hey, it's a sequel - it should follow. I'm quite impressed. It's a fun game. I wasn't expecting anything to just floor me, which is why I was reluctant to buy into the hype.

So, if you haven't been swept up in the hype, you shouldn't be disappointed. If you lost sleep the night before the release because you were too excited - you were probably let down. Don't get caught up in hype again.
Overall, it is a fun game with alot of potential. We'll see how it all pans out.

update: Valve just released Half-Life 2 : Deathmatch. It's a relatively small download (about 25-30Mb) and only takes a couple of minutes to install. In the multiplayer you get to use all the weapons from the game as well as the gravity gun. So, in addition to dodging bullets, you will also now be dodging urinals and exploding barrels. To install, just start up Steam and select to install the Deathmatch feature.

Havoc sez: The game doesn't live up to all the hype. The graphics are good, the gameplay is excellent, and it's fun interacting with various objects of the environment. You'll have loads of fun throwing beer cans at armed guards and smashing things with the crow bar. It's nothing that'll rock your world though. I just felt that Valve slapped the consumer in the face by incorporating Steam and rehashing Counter Strike as the multiplayer aspect of the game while charging an extra 5 dollars. If you hate Punkbuster and it's crappy project team, you will really hate Steam.

Notorious sez: I was somewhat bored with the game the first day, thought it was too much like the original, but the second day, it started to come into it's own. Specifically the Ravenholm chapter allowed for more creativity and and fresh gameplay. I still can't follow the plot for anything, but at least it gave me hope for some more originality than what I had first experienced. Btw, Steam worked fine for me, it was kind of annoying at first, but it saved my lazy ass a trip to Best Buy.

Prez sez: My being wise and saving my money is preventing me from taking part in the discussion of the game play, for I have not bought this game. Although, it will allow me to complain about the $5.00 increase in the price. Other gaming companies will see the price increase, and their greed will make them hungry for more and release their games at $54.99 as well.
update: HL2 is available for only $49.99 on Newegg.com with free shipping. So everyone who bought it for $54.99 should print out the page on newegg showing the price and the free shipping, then take it to the place where you bought the game, and price match it. You're welcome.

Mackieman sez: You know, despite not being currently in possession of hardware that will allow me to enjoy this game, I gotta say that the new price point is a bit out there. Especially when you get nothing but the game for it. The special edition that comes with neeto swag is $80. More and more, PC games are starting to be priced like console games. And that's just not a cost burden I am willing to bare.

I read on Slashdot earlier about Intel releasing their new BTX form factor.
Anandtech.com has the full story (and pics). In short, the new BTX form factor allows for more efficient cooling of a computer's components. Whether or not this form factor will catch on remains to be seen. Of course, it's not up to you and I, the end user; it's more aimed at component designers and motherboard manufacturers. And with Intel's market-might, it almost goes without saying that the new standard will be accepted by board design teams.

The components that run most hot are situated in-line with the CPU cooling fan airflow, in order to take advantage of the air being moved. This is an interesting step which will cut down on the number of case fans needed in newer systems.

This is just a form factor, mind you, and not a chipset release, don't be looking for any new features or faster speeds. Those follow new chipset designs. BTX will merely allow for designers to build in a new way.

I just received my new GPS that I purchased from a guy on SomethingAwful at a nice price. It came in this afternoon, and almost immediately, I visited GeoCaching.com to get the coordinates to the nearest caches to me.

I went looking for 3 of the nearest caches. After some looking, I located my first one. Inside I found a log book to log my visit, a camera to snap a pic, and some goodies. I left a couple of knick-knacks and took one to keep.
I searched for the other 2 for a little bit, but they'll have to wait for another day, since I ran out of daylight.

Update: Found a couple of caches in Nacogdoches over the weekend, left a travel bug in one for the Nac crew to find.

Due to the fact that I'm sure it'll be bumped from the shoutbox kinda quick, I decided to post the link to the personality test for others to take.

Post your results in the shoutbox if you wish. The test is not run by more, nor is it biases towards any one type of personality. Just something fun, that is much nicer than receiving a FWD in your mailbox: "zOMG ROFLMAO!!~! HAY d00dz, taek this test itz so kool!!1! pas it on or esle you will get herpes! LOLz!"

Anywho, take the test if you got some time, post your results in the shoutbox.
some results:

Grendel - ENTJ : 28 56 50 33 ..

MrPresident - ISTJ : 22 11 44 11

MackieMan - ISTJ : 33 1 11 89

Grimlen - ENFP : 44 50 56 89