Mad Catz R.A.T. 7

I have gone through several mice recently, even though I mostly use a trackball. I started with a wireless mouse, but became annoyed when it constantly failed to respond or needed batteries. Then I used the laser mouse that came with my Dell and it worked well. It even had a DPI adjustment button. But I just loved reading about and seeing the R.A.T. 7. It is so unorthodox, but surprisingly easy to use. It is very customizable, from the two sides, to the length and height of the back, to the amount of weight on it (there are several small weights that you can remove or keep until the mouse feels comfortable). The only thing that took me a few minutes to find was the tool included that you use to unscrew some screws to change things. It is actually on the end of a knob that sticks out the back of the mouse. Once you unscrew it (which also lets you get to the weights) you use the opposite side from the knob to unscrew screws. The mouse has a side scroll wheel in addition to the normal scroll wheel between the buttons. You need to download the software from the manufacturer’s web site, but there are many profiles available for different games. All in all I just like looking at the R.A.T. 7 sitting on my desk. Sure it costs more than cheapo mice (I purchased mine on sale from Best Buy) but you can’t beat the looks and the options for it. Highly recommended for gamers.

Jack Reacher

I thought this was a pretty good movie, but not consistent with the trailer, which shows it as if there are comedic elements. Sure the scene where he gets out of the car and blends into the crowd and slips away from the police is funny, but you already saw that in the trailer. The rest of the movie is serious for the most part. The first five minutes get your attention. The movie is not gory or bloody in any scenes, and there are a few fight scenes. Cruise did well as the lead character, taking no crap from anybody and looking at things from a different angle. There’s a twist at the end about who is bad instead of good, but the other bad guys are bad for certain. This was a good drama to watch with some good acting and some action scenes. I recommend it.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector

I saw this in a PC World article. Very useful and free. This program will scan the software installed on your computer and tell you if there are updates for your software. You can have the program automatically update your software, download updates and let you install them, or notify you that there are updates available. You can update the software right from within the program. The updates may download a newer version of the software or take you to a website to download the software.

Check out this great free program that will help keep your software up-to-date at Secunia’s website.

Some new Kickstarter projects to check out

Battle Worlds: Kronos is a turn-based strategy game that is a little less frantic than your typical RTS, but it looks fun nonetheless.

Worlds of Magic, a Master of Magic (MOM) successor 4X fantasy game. Uses the D20 tactical combat system.

Shroud of the Avatar, Lord British’s new game is no longer available on Kickstarter, but you can still pledge money as a backer until sometime next week on its website shroudoftheavatar.com. Hurry while you still can.

 

 

Argo

I read a lot of complaining after watching this movie about the lack of historical accuracy. Be that as it may, besides some ridiculous Hollywood forced drama at the end of the movie, it was pretty good. There were some good characters (Alan Arkin and John Goodman gave good performances) and it played out as a good drama. Just don’t go into this movie expecting the facts to be accurate and you might enjoy this movie as a dramatic portrayal of an undercover escape from a hostile country. There is some real tension with the people who are trapped living day-to-day in danger of being caught. Also some crazy government schemes to get them out are debunked by Ben Affleck’s character. It comes across as one guy fighting hard to rescue 6 people from a dangerous situation against government bureaucracy and with time running out. Knowing the ending spoils it a bit, but watching events unfold was very interesting.

The Dark Knight Rises

I found time to watch this long movie last week. I think it was about 2 hours 45 minutes. I enjoyed it though. It never was boring or slow, even when there wasn’t any action. I remember reading people complaining about the lack of Batman, that he only appears twice in the whole movie. But this movie was more about Bruce Wayne and him giving up being Batman. I think that was established early on in the movie.

There were a lot of twists and turns in the movie, one at the end I should have seen a mile away, especially since I am familiar with R’as Al Ghul (whose name they continue to mispronounce) from the comics and Batman cartoon. I did enjoy the story coming around full circle from Batman Begins. There were many appearances by individuals from the different movies. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was good in the movie and the ending is a nice setup for a sequel. I also noticed many characters besides Bruce Wayne did not have as many scenes in the movie as you would expect. There was a lot going on, but it was a good movie.

I always check the credit to see if I missed anyone, and I did; I didn’t notice Matthew Modine as the officer who questions Gordon, then realizes he is right by the end. I guess these actors I grew up with are just getting older.

This movie wasn’t as good as Batman Begins or The Dark Knight (my favorite of the three, you just can’t beat the Joker). But it was still a good movie, if different because it has less action and more story. If you can live without fights and explosions every few minutes, you might like this movie. At least give it a shot.

Box.com

I recently discovered this cloud-based storage site. I had played around with Skydrive before this and thought about Google Drive, but I am pretty happy with Box. What I like about it is the diversity of client support (Windows, Mac, IOS, Android) and the apps available to use with it (I’ve only tried Box for Office which allows you to open from and save to Box from inside of Office apps, but it sure slows down the apps).

Of course Box includes a sync program (Box Sync) that creates a My Box Files folder that syncs files and folders inside of it across multiple computers and devices. I love being able to open and save files from my desktop, laptop, or phone as needed. Box Sync also allows you to open your Box website with a click and move your “My Box Files” location easily. This is a vast improvement over Skydrive which makes you unlink your computer then link it again to move the Skydrive folder. I don’t have any experience with other services to compare their implementation of this.

Box has a free 5 GB account for personal use and paid personal storage up to 50 GB. For more they offer business accounts with up to 1 TB of storage and from 3 – 500 users at $15 per month per user. Enterprise customers have unlimited users and storage (and probably pay a lot more for it).

Anyway, check out Box at Box.com as another cloud storage alternative and see what you think.

Donating Computers but Don’t Have the Original Discs

I have been donating some computers again trying to clean out some old systems that are no longer good enough for the office. Some of these were given to me because the hard drive failed and the owner just bought a new computer or I no longer have the discs that came with the computer. I don’t like to donate something that won’t work because anyone who buys it may not have the skill to get it up and running. So I turn to Linux, in particular Fedora Core.

I have been using Fedora since Red hat spun it off. It works well and is easy to install. I found the easiest method to use, especially on older computers, is the Network Install CD ISO. I was using a DVD burned from an ISO, but some older computers’ DVD drives wouldn’t recognize the disc. The Network Install is smaller so it fits on a CD which pretty much any computer can read. It downloads packages from the Internet during the install. I just do a basic desktop install and make the passwords “password”. I tape this information to the computer so when someone looks at it they know it has Linux and know the login information.

You can find different download formats at the Fedora website.