Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Microsoft Haters vs Critics

quillIt’s not a secret among many of my friends and co-workers, I have been pretty harsh toward Microsoft lately. It’s an interesting dichotomy since I make a living developing Microsoft solutions. Despite my harsh opinions, I’m hardly considered a hater. This post was inspired by another post I read in Visual Studio Magazine (No Stopping Microsoft Haters). The unfortunate fact is, the trolls of the Internet are relentless. Some may actually have valid reasons for their opinions, others are probably just trying to bate the passionate.

The thing is, there is a huge difference between a hater and a critic. I rip on Microsoft a lot, because I do have high expectations for a company that has been in business for nearly 40 years. I don’t think my comments and opinions make me a hater. Perhaps if you were to say I am a Windows 8 hater, that might be a valid accusation. However, I really enjoy the tools Microsoft provides to make my job a hundred times easier. I really think Windows 7 is the best version of Windows you can use (unless you must use Hyper-V, then you are pretty much stuck using Windows 8).

Unfortunately for Scott Hanselman, his rather scathing article, which has incited quite a comments backlash, may have painted him as a hater. I read his article, Microsoft killed my Pappy, and it does read like one of those obstinate anti-Microsoft personalities that has been attacking the company for years.  So, yea, there is quite a difference between someone that just has strong opinions against one or two particular products and someone that is merely trying to trash a name.

/cheers

MMO Times: So Long, Sochi!

mmotimesheaderIIIssue 95: The 2014 Winter Olympics are over. A big congrats to all the Olympians that received a medal this year. Congrats to Russia for winning the most medals this year, it’s pretty cool that they won the medal count when the Olympics were on their home soil. Congrats to Canada for winning the Hockey Gold Medal!! All right, enough with the Olympics, this is an MMO blog post for crying out loud!

I have a couple of World of Warcraft posts available this time. Mostly expansion related but there is a really cool transmog post I would encourage you to read if you’re interested. I found an interesting FFXIV post regarding its port to the PS4, plus some RIFT news. So now that we have all that Curling out of our system, lets check out whats happening in the MMO games. Enjoy!

Book Review: Divergent

Divergent (Divergent, #1)Divergent by Veronica Roth

My rating:[rating=5]
(Click here to read this review on Goodreads)

I really liked this book, more then I thought I would. It’s not often that I read many books where the hero is female and that’s just a coincidence. The book takes place in the future again, it a dystopian Chicago (which is immediately a win for me). There is definitely a Hunger Games vibe to the book where society is broken into 5 factions and once you choose a faction (either your own or changing factions) you must remain a part of that faction and adhere to its ideals or become factionless.

However, there are anomalies that many consider to be a threat to that way of life. Divergents are among all the factions and perhaps they are the key to breaking down faction walls, but there are those in power that do not want to see that happen.

There is a heavy romance plot to the book as well which might help to appeal to a broader range of readers. I am now excited for the movie (and I hope its as good as the book). If you enjoyed Hunger Games then I would pick up a copy of this book, before its out in theaters.

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MMO Times: Respawned!

mmotimesheaderIIIssue 94: Hello Gamers! I know the MMO Times has been missing all year but that is mostly the result of the site relocation efforts that were taking place over the past couple of months. I hope you all are still interested to read about what new things are coming up in the MMO genre and that you haven’t developed any bad habits of looking the news up yourself! I hope there won’t be any more interruptions for a while so I can keep bringing you the latest MMO headlines! So on with the show!

The latest news entails mostly details about Blizzard titles, including two upcoming titles (Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm). Bioware has some news for SWTOR players that they hope will spark more interest. There is also a possible new MMO title coming. Also, if you hadn’t heard yet, the official release date for Elder Scrolls Online is set for April 4th and the game is still sending out beta invites. I have not participated but I would be interested in hearing what your impressions are if you are in the beta.

New Domain, New Home

Greetings World!

It has been a while since I have posted anything but a couple of book reviews. The reason for that is I had to move my site to a new domain. Before I continue I need to pay some homage to my former site host. My good friend owns the www.fuzzydice.net domain and has been hosting my site for over a decade. It’s difficult to repay so many years of great service and I can’t thank him enough for doing it despite my occasional badgering when the server were to crash (or the time my site was compromised – damn spambots!). As things in life change and the cost to manage server space goes up, sometimes its easier, and cheaper, for everyone to move on to new homes and new domains.

Thanks Fuzzy!!

So here we are at our new home. I don’t know what to expect yet as far as stability and performance nor am I certain yet that this will be the permanent home but it will be sufficient for now. I’m also surprised how easy it was to actually move a WordPress site. I was honestly expecting it to be rather difficult but it actually took longer to backup and restore the site then it did to reconfigure WordPress (I found this post to be extremely helpful). If you happen to have my blog site bookmarked, you will want to update the link (or hit Ctrl+D and delete the old one).

At any rate, I will be getting back to my normal blog banter with the return of MMO Times and my other nerdy posts and rants.

/cheers

Book Review: Ready Player One

Ready Player OneReady Player One by Ernest Cline

My Rating: [rating=5]
Click here to read the review on Goodreads.

The star ranking of “it was amazing” seems trite compared to how much I enjoyed this book. I knew within the first three chapters that this was going to be a top five book for me. The entire book was living my early childhood from the 80s. I grew up playing several of the games that were mentioned in the book. I still watch all of the movies that were mentioned in the book.

I am an avid gamer so the concept of the story had me completely immersed as if it were the OASIS itself. It’s also kind of humorous to think that I actually live fairly close to Middletown, Ohio. While I don’t think our MMO games will ever dominate our lives as the OASIS does, it’s still rather exciting to imagine the world Halliday created becoming real; although some of the concepts (i.e. attending school or performing a regular job in a virtual world) are not really that far fetched. In fact, in today’s world, I think it’s quite conceivable.

Ender’s Game is #1 on my list of non-classic literature. I haven’t decided if this book has dethroned Ender’s Game yet, I may have to read it again to decide; in the meantime, its definitely a tie.

If you are a product of the 80s and a gamer geek, this book is a priority 1 must-read.

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