Cupcakey – Page 4 – Jordan Riane

Hover, a new domain registrar

September 17, 2010March 9, 2024Personal

Yesterday I was in the market for some .me domains to try to help a brand I already started. I just didn’t want to pay $15-25 for a couple of .me domains that would be redirecting to a .com.

I ended up stumbling across Hover. Right now they’ve got .ME domains for $5. Yeah, $5. So I spent a good 30 minutes pouring over some new names and I had 5 in my cart but decided to cut it down to just 2. $10 for two .me domains. That would have been around $40 at GoDaddy or Namecheap.

The cost for the other domains are around $15/yr for com/net/org although they do include free private whois, DNS management, domain forwarding and unlimited custom URLs. That’s almost on par with the other registrars and you won’t have to deal with atrocious hidden fees that you don’t see until you checkout.

You can use the coupon code “cupcakes” to get 10% off your purchase at Hover.

Disappointed with Razer and their Lycosa

September 5, 2010March 9, 2024Personal

Last year I was on the lookout for a new keyboard and having already been using Razer products (Razer Abyssus and a Razer Goliathus), I decided to take a gander at their keyboards.

I went with the Razer Lycosa keyboard. I wanted something with laptop-style keys that would be quieter and of course the backlight was a plus. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t read up on any reviews on this product at all. I just went blind into the purchase as I was already familiar with Razer.

The first few couple of months were fine; I used the keyboard on a daily basis for hours at a time. After awhile though I noticed that the occasional time a key would not respond (eg: the letter ‘g’ would not respond) and unplugging the USB cord would ‘reset’ it. This happened so seldom that I never thought anything of it. However, after awhile it turned into more than just a key here and there. Eventually the touch screen to change light settings (WSAD, all keys lit, off) would randomly stop responding and various keys would be ‘stuck’ despite not having even touched them.

It has gotten to the point where I would unplug the USB cord for my keyboard every few hours. A couple of months ago I finally researched a bit on the product and found various articles that this was a common problem with the Lycosa. Lycosa’s with serials that started at MT0803, MT0802, MT0801, and MT07 were those that were affected however Razer stated that “were limited to a small batch of customers” and since the problem was ‘so small’ no recall was necessary. My Lycosa starts with an MT09 serial number and apparently I should not be affected–but I am!

I finally decided to contact Razer last night as I was tired of putting up with the poor reliability of the Lycosa. I received a reply within a few hours asking for more details on the purchase. And finally around 10PM last night I received a response that they would not offer me an RMA on the Lycosa due to my purchase having only a 90 day warranty on it from November 2009 to January 2010. WHAT?!

The main article I read on the issue was from Tomshardware.com “Razer Responds to Lycosa KB Issue”

“Frick also mentioned that the problem was small enough that there wasn’t any recall performed, and that customers with affected serial numbers can get their boards replaced free of charge.”

So just because my serial isn’t specifically listed as affected yet those with MT09 keyboards DO have this issue, I’m screwed no matter what. I just think it’s poor that Razer knows of this issue yet has done nothing about it in the three years it’s actually been present. The sad thing is that the MT09’s are obviously affected because looking around online will yield tons of posts about the MT09 being affected just as well. I think that they really should have immediately taken my keyboard for an RMA despite the serial being MT09 and the warranty being up–especially when they’ve even admitted to the problem and stated that they would replace the boards free of charge.

I was really looking forward to continuing on being a loyal Razer customer. I’ve been waiting for the Razer Onza to release and after this issue, I’m not even sure if I want to continue using Razer’s products. Between the issue STILL being present and Razer failing to replace the obviously defective product, I’m already looking at picking up a Logitech Illuminated keyboard and a Xtrac pads for future mouse/surface pads.

logitech-illuminated — Logitech Illuminated Keyboard

Looking for some female gamers

August 4, 2010March 9, 2024Gaming

Over the years I’ve always been a part of someone’s gaming community–a member here, a subscriber there or a moderator there. There have been multiple times through the years that I’ve contemplated starting my own community. I’d get a domain registered and would start to prepare the site.. but eventually I just stopped following through with it. However, a few weeks ago I had the urge to run my own community and after my GoDaddy pre-order for cupcakes.co failed, I decided to use that refund towards GameGirl.

My idea for GameGirl is to be both a place for gaming content (reviews, walkthroughs/achievements, game updates) and a social network. Right now I’ve been slamming away on the keyboard getting the GameGirl forums tidied up. I debated on whether or not I wanted to hold off on allowing a community to start but I figured what’s stopping me? So the community is up and running already while I’m now focusing all my time and effort on getting the main site designed and coded.

That being said this post is actually me looking for some serious to casual gamers. You don’t necessarily have to be female although it’s my priority/preference for the time being. Essentially I am looking for people that will remain dedicated to this project while we’re in our baby phase. I’m looking for gamers that enjoy writing reviews about games they’ve played (single player, co-op or multiplayer), writing about the latest news for video game publishers and developers, or perhaps enjoy creating video walkthroughs and/or achievement guides.

This will be an unpaid position within GameGirl but over the next few months I do plan on providing to those that are contributing to GameGirl on a consistent basis. How you’ll be rewarded will be discussed privately as I don’t want to give away all of my trade secrets! If you are interested in contributing your writing skills to GameGirl then please send an email to me at jordan @riane.org.

If you’re not interested in writing for GameGirl but would like to be a part of the community then please register at the forums! It’s not active at the moment as we have only just finished the skin (and are still working on making it cross browser and/or fixing bugs) but I’d love to have any of my readers join even if you’re not a gamer.

Adding to the family (Say hello to Dodger!)

May 13, 2010March 9, 2024Personal

The last time I had any pets in my life was when I was living in Louisville, KY for a few years. During that time I had Sadie, a white boxer; Wicket a german sheperd/husky mix; and Molly, a mix puppy.. no clue what her breed was. Anyway, Sadie I had for a few months until I gave her to a friend’s family to take care of; Wicket went to another friend that was looking for the same breed.. Molly was unfortunately given away to my ex’s brother’s girlfriend.. without my permission. I had just moved out of the apartment and he agreed to take care of her for a few weeks while I got settled into my place. Unfortunately he ended up giving Molly away instead seeing as though he was the world’s biggest douchebag.

Since 2006 I haven’t had any kind of pets in my life. It’s just been my obsession with pugs growing larger than life. Pugs on my birthday cards, cards to other people, stuffed animal pugs, pug statues, pug jewelry.. If it has a pug on it you can be assured that I either own it or at one point wanted it. Last year while I was in the hospital, my mom decided to agree that I could get a dog although we didn’t have any time frame in mind. I did agree that it would be after I was able to walk.. November came around and I didn’t really think about a dog. February came by and there was a news story on a puppy mill raid that had a bunch of pugs in there. Unfortunately the animals were not being put up for adoption as the judge ruled against it. May came by and I was HOPING that for my birthday I would be surprised with being able to get a dog. I had an inkling of doubt but I fooled myself as I was given a card that had a little PAWS print with a note saying it was time I get a dog!

I looked through all listings for shelters, rescues and stores for a pug. The closest Pug rescue was in northern Illinois and majority of the Pugs were 7-8 years old, half-blind and would require someone with the finances to take care of their major ailments. Looking at rescues in other states were not an option. The Kentuckiana Pug Rescue required that you lived in the area as they did a home check.. they had a large selection of pugs too! When I was able to find pugs in my area, they were mixed breeds–Pug w/chihuahua, Pug w/German Sheperd, Pug w/ Beagle, Pug w/ Greyhound (this was an UGLY mix).. So I made the decision to hold off on a pug. I know, it was a rather shocking decision to everyone as they all felt I should wait.. But I had discussed that it would be best to get a family dog right now and in a few months if I’m able to find a Pug, then he (or she) will be adopted by myself.

Last night we went to our local PAWS last night after I had stalked their dog listings for days. I had narrowed my choice between two dogs: Carmel, a white/tan sheperd/husky mix, and Dodger, a fawn/tan/red sheperd mix. Going there last night was pretty tough as you’ve got a bunch of other dogs there just looking at you with the saddest eyes you could ever imagine. I wanted to take almost all of them home! Seeing Carmel was a bit of a disappointment. She wasn’t interested in me when I approached her–heck I think she pretty much ignored me! As I walked up to Dodger’s spot, he immediately looked at me and begged to me touched, licked my hand and was overall jovial. I spent a few minutes with all of the other dogs but ultimately said I wanted to meet with Carmel and Dodger.

Dodger was first up to meet with my family and I. He immediately went over to all of us and went nuts with face licking, sniffing us, laying on his back for belly rubs and of course licking every nook and cranny on the floor. We then had Carmel come in but she was just not interested in us at all. She wouldn’t come to us to be petted, didn’t want to be touched and was more interested in standing in front of the door than anything. The only time she did give any attention was when the PAWS volunteer gave us some treats to give to her to try to motivate her attitude a bit more.. But she still wasn’t having any of it. I was a bit discerning as I was really hoping to get along with her. This is essentially what made my decision easy.. Dodger was going to be my final choice. I think what really helped was that when my dad went up to his cage, Dodger got on his hind legs and let my Dad ruffle his scruff. My dad has never appeared to be a Dog whisperer of any sorts, so if Dodger can make the ice in my dad’s pet heart melt, then this was obviously going to be the one!

So without further ado, Dodger is now a part of my family! :D.

You can also check out my Flickr set to see a few more pictures of him. Obviously more to come over the months (and years!)

Halo: Reach Beta thoughts and code giveaway

April 30, 2010March 9, 2024Gaming

Update: If you want to catch a livestream of it, I’ll be broadcasting at justin.tv later tonight around 9PM CST.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to snag a Halo: Reach beta code to get into the beta a few days early versus waiting until May 3rd. Needless to say I spent a few hours playing the Reach multiplayer beta and had somewhat of a blast. Prior to yesterday I had an almost year and a half hiatus from Halo 3 as I made the switch over to Call of Duty. My elite skills that were once there were no longer and I might as well have been a noob.

First thoughts jumping into the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta was wow, the UI is seamless, transitions are gorgeous and everything is fluid and smooth. I also love that the menus all appear to be at a slight angle giving it a bit of a 3D look without being too obnoxious and pixelated. I jumped straight into the settings to customize my super awesome Spartan. Rather than unlock armor based on your campaign and/or achievement completion, armor unlocks are now based on the credits you earn from the game whether it’s multiplayer or campaign (I believe campaign is included but I will find a source later.) You also unlock them based on your current ranking (eg: “You are missing some of the prerequisites needed to purchase this item: You need to be at least Warrant Officer.”)

halo-reach-beta-armory — Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta - The Armory

One thing I liked the most was that your service tag isn’t just the standard Number/Letter/Letter. You can now have four characters in your service tag, in any order you please. I went with my current Modern Warfare 2 clan tag, which is just #23, an ode to Michael Jordan. It’s definitely a step up from my old Halo 2/3 service tag which was “H03.” Emblems are pretty standard, a lot from the other games and some new ones mixed into it. The scrolling for emblems definitely improved a lot as you go up and down for your background and left and right for your foreground. Definitely easier to sort through the plethora there. I opted for my Halo 3 emblem of a ducky.

Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta - Matchmaking Menu

The matchmaking menu received a nice face lift. I’m now able to see what friends of mine are currently in the game and what they’re doing. No need to go to the Xbox menu and scroll through friends to see who is on right now. That is definitely an awesome feature that I’m glad they integrated with it. Again you can see how awesome the slight angle looks for it and the background image for it gives a sneak peak into what to expect for Halo: Reach itself.

As far as what is currently available you have two different playlists you can sort through, Arena and Standard with Standard being the only one available at this time as well as only two maps being available (next week two more will be available.) You can either opt to play in 4×4 Team games or go straight into 8 player FFA. Right now there are only a few gametypes available with some new ones being “Stock Pile” where you have an allotted amount of time to collect 10 flags to win; There are flags strategically placed throughout the maps available to either team to pick up and run it back to their flag spot. There are 60 second wait periods for flag capturing so while you might grab 5 flags within 30 seconds, you have 30 seconds left to defend until they are calculated to your score.

One of the biggest differences with matchmaking is that you now have the chance to vote between four different options–three are gametypes and the fourth is “none of the above. Now I’m not sure whether or not this is specific to the multiplayer beta or if we’ll see it in Reach come the fall but this definitely allows for you to really play what you want to instead of being stuck with a gametype you don’t enjoy. Right now people aren’t used to it so I’ve seen a lot of games stuck on the default checkmark versus users picking their own. Once everyone gets more acquainted with it, I’m sure we’ll be playing better gametypes. I was stuck with a lot of Stock Pile games, 1 CTF and VERY few Team Slayer or Team Swat games.

Phew this is a lot already and I haven’t even gotten into the gameplay itself! A lot has changed for multiplayer itself with changes to weapon (bye-bye BR, hello DMR!), health/shields and of course the addition of some new weapons and the already infamous weapon load outs. Very similar to the style of Call of Duty’s “classes,” you have load outs that you are able to choose right when a game starts and before you respawn after a death.

halo-reach-beta-loadouts — Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta - Weapon Loadouts

Right now the load outs are very basic. All start off with an assault rifle as your primary, a pistol as your secondary and 2 frag grenades. Now the main difference between the four weapon loadouts are your special ability (although I think they’re actually called “equipment” as the button layout states it as such.) On the default button layout, you’d be using your LB (Left Bumper) to activate it. You can check your usage progress on the lower left hand side of the screen. You’ll see an icon of your class and around it is a circle progression bar. When you start using the equipment, you take away from the current power you have. Once you use it all up you have to wait for it to regenerate itself. Which is an awesome feature which will definitely not make the game too unbalanced.

The following are available as loadouts:

Scout – You have the ability to sprint.
Guard – You are “invisible” with your shield.
Stalker – You are wearing camo and are invisible.
Airborne – You have a sweet ass jetpack to fly.

If you’d like to read more about the loadouts and what to expect from the game itself, Bungie has up an awesome guide for the Loadouts to see what else they’ll be bringing into the game. I pretty much rotated between Scout and Airborne. Airborne is hella awesome. I was a bit skeptical at first when I had read about this new addition a few months ago but.. actually trying it out. It’s ridiculously different but it really adds a whole new playing field to the game. Rather than crouching behind a wall or object when you’re in a battle with someone, just boost yourself into the air to headshot them from above. No need to play the “Who’s gonna poke their head out first” game! Scout was what I initially started off with. I play a lot of Modern Warfare 2 [multiplayer] which means I am ALWAYS sprinting and/or utilizing the Marathon perk to run without breaks. Going from MW2 (or even COD4) to Halo 3 (again) was too difficult for me because I felt like the gameplay was SO much slower and I was unable to get used to it again.

In Slayer gametypes I don’t see this impacting it too much, most people are either aggressive or passive so I don’t see this changing anything.. but when it comes to objective based games, this will definitely help to “organize” your team on who does what. If you have someone that prefers to stay back from the pack and take long ways to flank, then they will definitely love the Stalker class. For someone that is overly aggressive and prefers to go for more defense then offense, the Guard loadout will be perfect as they’ll have that extra time to “protect” themselves and even use themselves as bait to allow teammates to flank. Scout will be perfect for the person that loves to immediately go straight for the objective–with that sprint you can just try rushing immediately. But beware, you can’t use your loadout with your objective, so don’t try to sprint away with the flag in your hand–You’ll end up dropping it. And last but not least for the person that likes to be the middle man between offense and defense, Airborne might be perfect for you. You’ll be able to rise high into the air to pop a few shots into people near your team mates or even rush to the person with objective to give them cover fast. On the first floor but they’re on the third and need help? No problem, just boost your jetpack to get your butt up there!

halo-reach-beta-weapon-loadouts — Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta - Loadouts

There’s still so much more to go over with the beta thus far but I’m going to put them into another post over the weekend. I originally intended to just hash over a few things but eventually inspired myself to actually write about the beta thus far. Which to be frank, this isn’t a beta. This feels more like a pre-release/sneak preview to entice years and increase the hype even more. I’ve yet to find any glitches and/or bugs while playing.. compared to the Halo 3 beta this is entirely different.

Win a Halo: Reach Multiplayer beta code

That being said if you’ve read this far then.. congratulations because you’ve got a chance to win the one and only extra Halo: Reach Multiplayer beta invite that I have so you can hop in on the fun over the weekend instead of waiting until Monday. You’ll get to be the cool cat everyone will want to be ;).

Using your real name and email, post a comment on this post letting me what your most anticipated new feature for Halo: Reach is. Yup. that’s it.

Please make sure that you use your REAL email as this is how I will be giving you the code that you will need to redeem on Xbox so you can download the beta. I will pick a random commentator by 9PM CST tonight. So get your comments posted, now! 🙂