Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Purdue Tailgate Season 2013

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On November 20, 2013

In General Cogitation

team-entrance-hdrSadly the Purdue tailgate season has ended (ended sooner for me as I cannot attend the last home game). Granted Purdue’s football team was terrible this year; and when I say terrible I mean awful! I don’t think I have the vocabulary to express in text just how awful they were this year. Be that as it may, I really enjoyed tailgating with my old tailgating crew and college friends!

A friend and I started the tailgate for our group of friends nine years ago when we encroached in among several other veteran tailgaters and alum. We quickly made friends with all those around us and were soon welcomed into the group and there we stayed for these nine years (and counting). While my friend and I had to stop running the tailgate a couple years after we started it, Mike and Tammy picked up the reins and have done an amazing job to keep in running year after year.

We returned to the tailgate this year and we quickly found out how much we missed West Lafayette and how great it was to hang out with all our friends again. It’s amazing how much has changed on campus. There seemed to be new buildings springing up everywhere, but it still felt like home.

The future is impossible to predict so returning for every home game next year may, or may not, be in the budget. However, returning to a couple of the tailgates and/or a game, or two, may still be manageable. I wish my friends safe and successful tailgating for the remainder of the season and I hope to see them all again next Fall!

Boiler Up!!

MMO Times: Post-Blizzcon

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On November 12, 2013

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

mmotimesheaderIIIssue 92: Sorry for the lengthy delay; between work, the website becoming compromised and various other IRL stuff I haven’t been able to post a recent MMO Times. The hidden benefit though is that now that Blizzcon is over you know there should be plenty to talk about *cough*garrisons*cough*. MMO-Champion is probably going to get a lot of love in this issue because they seem to have the best overview of all that came out of Blizzcon this year. Therefore, if you are curious about what is new with World of Warcraft then I would recommend reading the headlines/posts in this issue from MMO-Champion.

I didn’t just find articles about what Blizzard announced and revealed at Blizzcon so don’t go anywhere. There are plenty of other things happening to read about. In fact if you stick around you will see that a new event will be starting for Final Fantasy XIV players as well as the next iteration for Marvel Heroes (which provides some godly, and demi-godly, additions). Plus Trion teases players with some recent domain registration activity. Read on and game on, friends.

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Blizzcon 2013 Opening Ceremonies

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On November 8, 2013

In Gaming, MMORPG, World of Warcraft

blizzconBlizzcon 2013 is this weekend (if you didn’t know). I didn’t get a virtual ticket this year, we have to save some money but the opening ceremonies are free to watch. If you watched it then you might not find anything in this post that you didn’t already know. It has been two years since the last BlizzCon so I know everyone is pretty excited about what they are announcing (even if you’re not playing WoW anymore).

Heroes of the Storm – The video introducing Dustin Browser was pretty cool. All the different heroes fighting each other. They showed some content of Heroes of the Storm. It pretty much looks like League of Legends with all the Blizzard heroes. Based on the glimpses of the videos you can play as Arthas (as the Lich King), Carrigan, Diablo, etc. I’m not much of a LoL fan but the game does look cool and I’m sure if you are a fan of both games then you’re going to really love this game.

**Big News** Beta sign-ups for Heroes of the Storm are live!

HearthStone – Rob Pardo. Originally a stealth/experimental project at Blizzard. Despite how “geeky” a battle card game seemed to be, when they were playing the game internally they logged so many hours they decided that they must have something pretty good, and thus HearthStone was born. This is Blizzards first tablet game and there will be iPhone and Android versions (haha, no Windows Phone!). Honestly, I can actually see myself playing HearthStone on my tablet more then on my computer.

**Big News** Going into beta next month.

If you went to the show or ordered a virtual ticket then you will get a special Blizzcon card called the Elite Tauren Chieftain and when you play the card, yea, its pretty awesome! Adding golden player cards, like the golden cards, which are fully animated. It looks kind of cool.

World of WarCraft – Of course the illustrious Chris Metzen talked to us about the WoW expansion. We all kind of knew it was called Warlods of Draenor – Metzen predicated the announcement by talking a lot of origins. He called the Alliance the “Captain America Faction” … love it! It sounds like we might be fighting some pretty old school villians which will be kind of cool to see (some names Metzen through out were Gul’dan, Hellscream, Blackmoore, etc. So it’ll be interesting. After building up the Alliance and giving some love to the Horde, the next expansion video debuts:

Warlods of Draenor – It will contain a new zone called Draenor (kind of obvious) The video said you will be able to build and upgrade garrisons so that might mean some kind of player housing. I’m sure the details of garrisons will come out in future panels, I will have to watch some of the other live blogs to learn more. Obviously the new level cap is 100. All the existing character models are getting new looks and upgrades and, of course, new items and loots. You can see the video below:

Please feel free to share anything you saw and your thoughts, positive and negative.

Stuck At A Crossroads

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On October 22, 2013

In Microsoft, Programming, Technology

thinkingmanI’ve been a programmer for going on 10 years now. I’ve mostly been doing .NET development because that came fairly easy to me. I’ve done non-.NET programming on the side (i.e. HTML5, iOS, etc) but the bulk of my experience lies in .NET. I’ve been butting heads with Microsoft lately because I don’t like the direction they are moving with their desktop and mobile technology.

I’m not a fan of Windows 8. I haven’t been since I saw it the first time in beta. I’ve tried it on several occasions in stores and laptops of co-workers and friends. Every time I’ve tried it I have never liked it. The only functionality of Windows 8 that doesn’t bother me is functionality that is already in Windows 7 so in my opinion there is no need for me to warrant paying to upgrade. I give that same advice to everyone else I speak to (which isn’t just limited to friends and family, but work colleagues as well).

This presents a conundrum because as a .NET developer its important to be on the “bleeding” edge. I won’t kowtow to everything Microsoft produces just because “they are Microsoft and can do no wrong”. On the other hand, how can I move forward in my career when I don’t agree with the direction the technology is moving? To be fair, I would feel the same if it were something Apple or Google were doing that I didn’t agree with. I know I’ve had my resistances to Microsoft in my past but I would like people to believe me when I say that its not just because its Microsoft.

I will accept the premise that my “concerns” with Windows 8 are personal but I feel that I can separate personal and professional opinions. With that said, even in my professional opinion I disagree with the Windows 8 desktop look-and-feel. The desktop UX should be distinctly different then a tablet UX and combining them was a mistake that hasn’t even been corrected in Windows 8.1 (which many people are calling the Coca-Cola Classic of the Windows desktop but without the revival).

Can I weather this until the next version of Windows? If so, how?

The MMO Times: I Wanna Be Like Wedge

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On October 17, 2013

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

mmotimesheaderIIIssue 91: Greetings Ghoulish Gamers! Halloween is just around the corner, do you have all your ghoulish plans ready to go? Perhaps your plans involve a little gaming while the kids are out getting their trick-or-treating on; or perhaps you have to man the door waiting for the arrival of this years lot of cosplay potentials? If sugar-seeking rugrats are keeping you from your favorite MMO, perhaps you will be able to check out these headlines (from your handy smart phone or tablet) while you wait.

There is an update coming to SWTOR that many players have been talking about since the games launch. There are also a couple of Blizzard announcements that pertain to more then just World of Warcraft. Some updates coming for FFXIV, Neverwinter’s first event, and other news. So eat some of that candy you’re handing out (you paid for it anyway) and read on! And try not to scare the kiddies!

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