A place for things and stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8YAlnMVELw
So it looks like there may be some other DC superheroes showing up in NBC’s Constantine. If you watch the trailer above at about the 47 second mark Constantine picks up the helmet of Dr. Fate! Dr. Fate would be a great addition to this show. He is one of DC’s best sorcerers, and he would fit in really well with Constantine’s supernatural vibe. Hopefully this is not just a tease, but they really start adding in some of DC’s heroes to this show.
I am continuing to slowly upgrade my computer (well actually pretty much replacing it), so the next three components I got, were the motherboard, RAM, and CPU. First up lets talk about the foundation of it all the motherboard:
Asus M5A97 LE R2.0:
After a bad experience with other board makers, I pretty much now only use Asus boards. Their customer service is kind of lame if you ever do need to call them, but their parts are usually so good that you don’t have to anyway. This board had exactly what I wanted: gigabit Ethernet, USB3 ports, a decent sound card, it supported the CPU I wanted, and it was cheap. It ended up being even cheaper thanks to a rebate offer.
It has a great BIOS, which I updated as soon as it started up, that allows for complete control over all your components, and extremely easy overclocking tools. What I liked about this thing is that it just worked the way I wanted it to out of the box. I didn’t need to play with anything, or toggle a setting, it just got my PC up and running.
The only downer is that it didn’t have a USB3 expansion port for the front of my case, but that wasn’t a feature I wanted to spend $20 on. I installed this three weeks ago and it has been rock solid, so if you are looking for a good low-mid level gaming board for AMD processors, you should put this on your short list.
G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB SDRAM DDR3 1866:
I don’t have a lot to say here other then this is some pretty fast RAM. I got the Ares version of the G.SKILL RAM family due to the fact it has low rise heat syncs, so I can put whatever components I want in my computer, and I don’t have to worry about them running in to the giant RAM chips sticking out of my MoBo. Like all DDR3 RAM chips that function above 1333 MHz, I did have select the 1866 MHz speed in my BIOS, but other then that they have been completely trouble free. I have never had problems with G.SKILL RAM, and it looks like that is still the case.
AMD FX8320:
Everyone that builds a mid-range gaming computer these days uses the Intel i5 series processors because they are fast, and they don’t consume a lot of power. I however am an AMD fanboy from way back, so I will take the hit in power costs, and a little hit in single threaded processing power to use an AMD chip. If you don’t care who makes your chips you should probably use an Intel i5, but if you do get an FX-8320 you will still be very happy.
It is fast enough, it has eight cores, and it is unlocked so you can overclock it as much as you feel comfortable with. In just playing around, I got this chip to over 4.1 GHz without too much effort. I didn’t leave it at that speed because I still only have to stock cooler, and didn’t want to burn it up, but when I do get a better cooler I will have this chip clocked well over the 3.5 GHz stock clock speed.
And I will totally be getting a better cooler. The stock cooler is fine when the computer isn’t working hard, but once you start doing something fun it sounds like a hoover vacuum cleaner. I suppose they just throw in a cooler to make it a complete set, but they must know guys like me will not use them for long anyway, so why bother including something good. Still the chip is cheap at under $150, so even with the price of a decent cooler, you still haven’t spent $200 yet, and that is a pretty good deal.
There are my three computer hardware mini reviews, and I hope you found them somewhat useful. I still have a cooler, and a video card to go to finish this computer off, and I will let you all know how it goes!
…hear him sizzle!
Ant-Man… Marvel superhero with the ability to grow and shrink in size (I had to check Wikipedia for a second just to be sure) and star of the upcoming film Ant-Man. There are several problems with Ants (as like to call him) the foremost being nobody knows who Ant-Man is. Well that’s not true, he has his fan base and he is a founding member of the Avengers. However after umpteen years and who knows how many events in the Marvel universe, does that really matter? The second problem is this film… it has no director. They had originally tapped Cornetto Trilogy director Edgar Wright to write and direct; they had even started filming. Then about a week ago he left and they haven’t been able to replace him (nor should they). The rumor was Disney, who owns Marvel, had a new script written that tore the heart out of the film for Wright.
So that leave us, the potential viewers, wondering if this film should even be made. I’ve liked Wright’s movies, so I’m sad to see him go. I greatly enjoy what Marvel has done with their comic book movies. But Ant-Man doesn’t carry any real weight with me and there is a second, lesser script. I think Ant-Man should go back down… to the ground… to get out of the way for far more interesting characters have their films made (Shmee would probably suggest Power Girl). I don’t see our hero escaping this one!
Let’s do a word association game. Ready? Hard… rock. Cut… paper. Bread… toast. Cute… Batman.
Sorry, my association with the word cute has been skewed forever by the fantastic webcomic JL8 by Yale Stewart. Imagine of you will, all of the DC comicbook superheroes and villians are eight-years-old and attend Schwartz Elementary. Awesome, I know.
Yale captures the essence of these heroes whilst having them deal with the life issues of little kids and it’s great! Batman broods alongside his best friend Superman, The Flash and Green Lantern get into all sorts of hijinks, and the Martian Manhunter is the new kid. I’d read from the beginning, but the current story arc has Green Lantern inviting The Flash and Martian Manhunter to his annual camping trip with his Green Lantern Troop and the search for Bigfoot. Also, Sinestro is a jerk. SURPRISE!
JL8 is posted on Facebook and here about twice a week. You’re welcome. Now for more word association to pass the time. Night Light… Green Lantern. Soft… silly string. Timeout…
If there is one thing we should all be sure of by now, it is that AMC loves period TV shows. Mad Men, Turn, Hell on Wheels, even The Walking Dead to an extent, and they are adding another one to the list: Halt and Catch Fire. The name refers to a piece of machine code that will destroy the computer. It pulls double duty here since the show is about going toe to toe with IBM by reverse engineering an IBM computer, so either IBM sues them into oblivion, or the computer they are reverse engineering will execute that code to protect itself.
This show gives off a very Mad Men vibe. It has a strong male lead Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) driving the show forward, and he is bending everyone around him to his will. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Even if it means destroying a profitable software company in the process by forcing them to fund his crazy venture.
They recreated the 80s perfectly. The tone and setting are all great. The writers also did a great job of making a show about getting ones and zeros off of a bios chip exciting, and I am legitimately interested to see if these guys can take IBM down. I am not sure how many seasons that they can keep this going for, but it is definitely different.
The actors are quite good as well. Lee Pace plays the main character just on the edge of being crazy, but still smart enough to get what he wants. Scoot McNairy is believable as Gordon Clark an electrical engineer looking to make his mark, and Pace’s crazy character gives him the spark he needs. I am not sure about Mackenzie Davis‘ Cameron Howe yet, but she didn’t get a ton of screen time, so I hope she gets to come in to her own.
AMC’s shows are not always hits, but at least they are continually trying new things. The 80s are a fun decade to explore, and the start of the IBM clones should be cool story line. If geeks have become cool in the last decade, then this show is as cool as it gets because it is extremely geeky. I hope AMC can build on this great pilot.