Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

New Domain, New Home

By

On February 17, 2014

In General Cogitation, Technology

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

By

On January 28, 2014

In Book Review, Geek Canon

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.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Sherlock Holmes, Vol 1

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On January 14, 2014

In Book Review

The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume IThe Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I by Arthur Conan Doyle

My Rating: [rating=4]
Click here to read this review on Goodreads.

I love a good classic and the last time I read a classic was probably right around my senior year in high school. The popularity of Sherlock Holmes has grown immensely since the release of the movie starring Robert Downey Jr. Now we have two modern day interpretations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved character so I had to finally read the original stories so I could understand where the inspiration came from.

These stories are classic literature so if you’re not a fan of classic literature then I wouldn’t advise trying to read this book. There is a chapter early on that seems completely out of scope of the rest of the book; clearly it’s purpose is to give the reader some perspective on the details of the life of one of the criminals.

Every story is told from the perspective of Dr. Watson (except for the aforementioned chapter). Personally I don’t feel that I am violating any Conan Doyle Canon by saying that I can definitely see several plausible parallels between all three interpretations of Sherlock Holmes (i.e. RDJ, Johnny Lee Miller, Benedict Cumberbatch). I can also, quite easily, draw parallels between the other characters and themes of the book and television series/movies. Granted, nothing is ever as good as the original, but reading this book has greatly improved my enthusiasm for all three renditions of Sherlock Holmes.

View all my reviews

The MMO Times: Gobble, Gobble!

By

On December 3, 2013

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

mmotimesheaderIIIssue 93: Greetings Gamers! I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving (for those that were celebrating it). Hopefully all of you have recovered from your tryptophan-induced comas. It’s not uncommon for me to be a week late around the major holidays so my apologies for a delayed post but my RL schedule didn’t really allow much research time over the past week. Be that as it may, here are some headlines that you may, or may not have missed.

This issue has some shocking World of Warcraft news (which you may already know about if you follow any WoW news). A preview of the upcoming SWTOR expansion, a new hero in Marvel Heroes, what Trion meant by “Trove” and much more. So if you’re waiting for a realm restart or your MMO-of-choice is performing maintenance today, perhaps the following articles will help to pass the time. Gobble, Gobble Gamers!

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My Tropical Turkey Trip

By

On November 30, 2013

In General Cogitation

20131129-155944.jpg

I took this picture of the sunrise the day after Thanksgiving this year. We had a difficult year and we decided we would do something completely different for Thanksgiving this year so we spent it at a house that is on the Atlantic side of Florida. A little place called Daytona Beach. The roller coaster temperatures and weather patterns back home have definitely made the trip worth it. It’s quite a unique experience to stroll along the beach on Thanksgiving. I have my amazing in-laws to thank for creating a truly unique holiday experience.

My first stroll along the ocean, the beach was absolutely littered with jelly fish that have been washed ashore by the ebbing tide. I have never seen so many jelly fish. We spotted live crabs, sand dollars and pelicans skimming, literally inches, above the water. Shattered shells also littered the coast, most likely from the hawks that patrolled the skies, swooping down for a “mollusca munchie”. So, despite the dangers of the daystar, I did leave technology on the counter a couple times this week to indulge in the brilliance of the beach (though I admit I’m still not much of a beach person).

Our first night here, we sat out on the patio and listened to the waves crash on the shore while staring up at a cloudless night sky. It’s not very often where you have such a clear night to star gaze. There was also a rocket launch schedule for this week down at Cape Canaveral, however it was postponed twice during our trip. Had they launched the rocket, the chances were good that it’s trajectory would have taken it nearly right over our heads.

While I am feeling a bit homesick and anxious to see my dogs again, I don’t think my body is quite prepared to board a plane where its 68 degrees and deplane where it’s 30 degrees. However, now that its after Thanksgiving I can start putting up my Christmas lights, which I plan to do first thing. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving this year and survived the Black Friday madness.

/cheers

Missing Images

By

On November 26, 2013

In General Cogitation

Thanks to those who pointed out that all of my older posts are missing images. I am aware that they are missing. When my WordPress was compromised a few weeks ago, I had to quarantine all my files and install a fresh copy of WordPress, therefore all the links to all my media are no longer valid. The effort to go through each post and try to reset all the images is more than I’m willing to spend. I might restore a few, but I doubt I will get around to doing it to all of them.

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