Archive for 2008

Ok, we’re going to try something new. A weekly column (hopefully every Wednesday) dedicated to Stuff You Didn’t Know You Needed. If you ever decide you need to look back on all of the fabulous items featured in this column they will be tagged with SYDKYN n. \sid-ˈkin\ under the category SYDKYN. This is the first segment so don’t get excited about seeing any archives just yet!

Situation: You’re driving down the road with your significant other and suddenly you are struck by the proverbial 20 minute lull common in long term relationships. You quietly panic inside. What do I do? What is she thinking? Maybe I’m talking too much again. She hasn’t even yelled at me for my crappy driving in the last 10 minutes? She’s not reading. What could she be thinking? Maybe she’ll go d—nah.

That’s right! This is one of the few times you wish that makeup mirror in your car was useful. You’re wishing that the mere mortal mirror laden visor would flip down to reveal…

Read More »»

Posted under: Gear & Gadgets
Tags:

You know you’re getting old when you read an article about “retro games” that includes Quake III. No I didn’t mis-type that. That’s the number 3.

The article refers to these as only ‘slightly retro’. I think modern gamers and retro-gamers alike would qualify these as “old games”–or at the very least games that are no longer current. Retro should imply “vintage” or “strongly smells of the days of my youth.” You decide:

  • “Quake III” That’s right. And now it’s open source.
  • “Unreal Tournament 2004” I don’t care what you say, this NOT retro. Yet.
  • “Halo” What-ev.
  • “Siberia” What what what?

“…four titles that will run and look great on modern hardware, can be bought for a couple dollars, and will provide you with several hours of pure gaming bliss.”

The article is here and it’s pretty cool that they are helping the average home user find some really great games to review on modren hardware. I just don’t think they can be called retro in any sense of the word.

Fellow geeks, I am a dunce. A few months ago I “fixed” the GridCycle website. Originally, I had no bot filtering so the default setting for new users was ‘contributer’. This gave little power to the new user and all posts and comments had to be moderated. I want this site to be open so I changed the default setting to ‘Author’ and installed a cool plugin called Sabre to require captcha upon registration. I was so happy! I now had rudimentary bot protection… but I wanted more. I installed a plugin called “New User Email Set Up” and created a custom message that would greet users upon registration.

Now I was set! The site would practically run itself! I went back and re-invited people who had attempted to setup user accounts but never got further than having ‘contributer’ rights. I was so glad that I could maybe grow the site with some more gamer-geek, video-head types.

The plugin was setup to deliver a message that went something like this: “Welcome Program. The MCP has granted you access to the site.” However, the plugin breaks all subsequent email functions of the website. The site never emails you a password. And it doesn’t email you if you try and retrieve a password. To quote Luke Skywalker, “Whatta piece of junk.”

Holy hole in a donut, Batman!

Last night the epiphany that the site was broken came when Commander Tim attempted to join the ranks of GridCycle. To misquote he said, “I smell a php problem” and later question me about a possible, “plugin conflict.” After much research it turned out to be the latter.

In summary, the site is running better than ever now. Captcha works. Registration works. Password retrieval works. Please, if you are a user who has attempted to login into this site before only to have nothing happen: Try again. If you are a user of the site who has forgot their password: Try Again. And if you’re new to the site: Ignore everything you just read and create an account for gods sakes!

Editor in Chief,

Commander Adama

Posted under: Announcements / Events

Ok, I know I may be one of the few on this site… who posts… or even reads… (I kind of feel like Jon in the Garfield Minus Garfield cartoons) but more to the point: I’m probably one of the few that has torn apart a real Arcade game and put parts of it together and/or tweaked them.

I find this eBay auction humorous
. Can you guess why?

“I picked this up at a yard sale and do not know what is wrong with it.”

MissleCommand MissleCommand

Poor guy. I feel bad that he didn’t know… But it’s still kinda funny.

Posted under: Arcade & Coin-Op, Humor
Tags: ,

Here is the link to an auction for an original Ms. Pac-Man motion sign used for promoting the Atari version of the game in 1982. I was winning up until yesterday with a bid of $10.50. I’m mildly relieved I didn’t win but frankly I was shocked at the price this little gem went for. Someone is probably very happy.

Posted under: Deals / Wanted
Tags: ,