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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Wishlists



A wishlist is simply put it -- a list of stuffs (or events) that you wish you would get or happen. It consists of a list of stuffs/events usually in no particular order you want -- hence the name a wishlist. This is a typical culture in the west where there are festive seasons that are exclusively about this commercialism themed celebration. Everyone is usually obligated to give gifts to those that they are closest with to indicate a feeling of appreciation and endearment. With wishlists, the giver will skip the hassle of having to guess what the recipient might be interesting of having. All they have to do is check the wishlist, look for any items they are interested to get for the said person and they'll be zero risk of the recipient not liking the item. This makes for a more pleasant (and effective) shopping experience. The giver, the recipient; everybody wins.

Now onto the conflict that wishlists might concur -- especially in our community.

  1. Perasan - most people that are aware of a person's wishlist might reflect the person as a person that is perasan (I've no idea what that word is in English). They would think of things like "Hey you inconsiderate asswipe. Who in the world would want to give you those things? Who do you think you are? The PM's son?"
  2. Materialistic - The person might be reflected as someone who is materialistic -- having to measure people's endearment by stuffs that people give to them. People will think that the subject wants these stuff more than the presence of these people at the first place.
  3. Obnoxious - Wishlisters will be applied with both of the properties therefore building up to the ultimate translation of that person is a complete jerk. Usually, people with more than one "morality issues" (usually just 2) will be reflected as "having lots of moral issues" due to the mass generalization that is at large. This will cause the subject to be treated poorly until when-when.
Truth of the being; a wishlist is not something that people (should) shove onto other people's spaces. It should only be made available and accessible to anyone that is interested to give anything at all to the subject without wanting to risk giving something that the subject might not like/already have. It is optional. I repeat, OPTIONAL. No one is forced to look at it and/or even give a flying hot chocolate mousse about the list. It is there for convenience. Just like a lot of other product research that we do, we tend to put stuffs into lists to make it easier and more efficient. The same property applies here. You wanna know, you look at it. You're curious, you look at it. You wanna look at it because you have nothing better to do, go ahead. You are not forced to do anything. But say if the list is just there and not forced to be read (or showed off) but you still judge about how inconsiderate the subject is, then you are currently being very ironic to yourself.

Also, like everything in life that does not interfere with you life directly -- don't be so easy to pass judgement. Be an observer. If you really think the matter at hands should be given extra attention then be courteous and approach with the most effective and non-offensive method possible. Not drop charges like it's hot.

For those of you interested to start a wishlist, visit Wishlistr.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Don't uninstall Steam using CCleaner

I was doing some housekeeping for my primary HDD recently when suddenly my Steam client got corrupted and unable to launch games. So I did the same as with many problematic applications that I have; uninstall and reinstall it. As usual, I uninstalled it with CCleaner, as how I uninstalled everything on my PC. Took longer than usual but it uninstalled. Which come to my surprise when I realize that all of the games in my Steam folder was also wiped out. Nooooooooooooooo! Well, too late to regret. Checked on a few forum on the net and they said there were an option of what to uninstall when removing Steam but it didn't prompt when I uninstall it using CCleaner. So there you have it, wiped out around 25GB of games that now needs to be redownloaded. Luckily all of the save game files are stored on different parts of the PC and it is safe and also lucky it was on Steam so it can never actually be lost since I still own the game on Steam. Lost all of my Non-Steam games shortcut though. These are the games that I lost and need to be redownloaded. Games in Italic are games that I haven't even played or played less than one hour as of yet:
  1. Alien Swarm
  2. And Yet It Moves
  3. Borderlands
  4. Devil May Cry 4
  5. DiRT 2
  6. Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time
  7. Eufloria
  8. Gish
  9. Half-Life 2
  10. Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
  11. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
  12. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
  13. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
  14. Iron Grip: Warlord
  15. Jolly Rover
  16. Left 4 Dead 2
  17. Overlord
  18. Overlord: Raising Hell
  19. Overlord II
  20. Peggle Extreme
  21. Portal
  22. Puzzle Agent
  23. Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale
  24. Red Faction: Guerilla
  25. Team Fortress 2
  26. VVVVVV
  27. World of Goo
Note to self: Backup game when uninstalling Steam.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Upgrades and such

So earlier this morning, I excitedly went to the Pos Laju Centre at Bangi to pick up my parcel. Got there as soon as the place opens. Since I'm guessing they'll be posting the parcel to homes today so I'll have to be quick before they actually load up my stuff to be sent. If this happens, it will force me to wait for an indefinite amount of time. This is the waiting time that I cannot afford to take because I've been waiting for this package for over a week now so naturally I'm pumped! So pumped that punctuations are getting less and less in my sentences. Ordered some bargain stuff since its the Black Friday and stuff and I've saved quite a lot and got stuff that aren't available here in the country. In retrospect, the stuff I ordered was an upgrade of some sort to me.


Graphics upgrade
I was running an outdated graphics card before. Just an Nvidia 9500 GT. It was ok 2 years ago but it gets old quick. A lot of electronics stuff gets old quick nowadays. Ordered up an EVGA Nvidia 450 GTS 1GB that I got for just $80. The manufacturer's standard retail price (MSRP) for this item is actually $130. So I saved $50 there. Been targeting just as far as the 250 GTS but at this lucrative price I might just as well jump the gun since this'll be the maximum card my current motherboard and power supply unit can handle. I not throwing away my old 9500 GT 512MB though. It is now my dedicated PhysX processing unit. A lot of forums been saying that its too slow to be a PhysX card though but I'm gonna try it on a few games first and see how it goes. As for my new primary weapon; the 450, its rather a large card really. Quite heavy too. Had to move my secondary HDD to make space for the card. Installation was very easy. Although since I'm running an older monitor, which forced me to use the DVI to VGA adapter, the image comes out a bit... how do I say it.. funky. Ain't sharp as usual. It has that HDTV feeling to it. I dunno. But it doesn't look bad though. Not a deal breaker. Tested a few games and so far have been able to run a lot of games on maximum without any hiccups. Well I don't have that big of a monitor to being with though. Just a 19' sporting 1440x900. Now I can go nagging about this for quite a while but I don't want to. Gonna stop here for graphics card.



Wallet upgrade
My old wallet was in a very very worn condition since... well it been worn so its suffering from wear and tear, more so than usual since it's not water resistant but has been exposed to water several times already. Not only it was ugly, it was breaking the card in it. Had to change it. Got the wallet at a very special price. Also Black Friday deal. Its uh Calvin Klein if I'm not mistaken. Black. Leather. Smells like PVC though. Removable ID compartment. I can't find an image for this but hey its wallet what could it possibly look like.

Humor upgrade
Well its not that my sense of humor thats getting an upgrade. I don't think thats even possible. Rather I got the Cyanide & Happiness books, both of them. The self titled and Ice Cream & Sadness. Only been taking glimpses at both of these books. I thought it was a hardcover but it wasn't. It's also white in color so I'm going to find a plastic cover for it as soon as possible. Also on sale for the Black Friday. Got both of them at a special price. As for the contents themselves, well what can you say? These people are comedic geniuses.

Problem upgrade
Actually I also order a Creative Vado HD (2nd Gen) since I've been wanting to have my own pocket HD camcorder.But luck has it that its not my time yet to have one. I received a defective unit. It cannot be turned on. Checked out the site, went to the forums and saw a lot of people having the same problem as me. In fact, its the most viewed thread in the whole section. What does that say about the quality of their product. Now I have to return it to Amazon waaaay out there to Lexington, KY. Thats gonna cost even more money. Not to mention how much I've already spent shipping it here. I'm never gonna buy anything from Creative again. First experience with their brand and already problematic. I hope they can give me a refund. I wanna get something other brand. This camcorder sucks. No wonder they're very cheap.



There are some other stuff as well. Even free gifts. Don't feel like writing about them. Let them be them. Spent a lot on stuffs I've always wanted to buy. I don't regret buying them. Black Friday's discounts are very kind towards electronics and I took advantage of it. That is all.