I have just finished the Single Player Campaign mode of Titanfall 2. I just have to say: What a fun ride. I’m going to try avoiding comparisons to the original Titanfall, other than to say that the original Titanfall had no real campaign, only a basic training model. Titanfall 2 has a campaign and it’s pretty rock solid, honestly.
Update 1/6/2017 at 9:30pm: As of now my Best Buy Gamer’s Club Unlocked is officially unlocked. Almost a full week after it was supposed to be. I am leaving this post up for posterity. I am still annoyed with Best Buy. I am still blocked from posting on the forums.
Oh man. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I am thoroughly mad. Best Buy is yanking my chain left and right on this and I’m pretty much out of venues to get feedback and talk it out. I need to rant and vent because I’m not getting anywhere with anyone and I’m out the money (not a lot, $30, but regardless).
Let’s set the stage right proper here.
TL; DR Version: Gamer’s Club Unlocked (Online Activation) is either broken or a complete scam job. Avoid it at all costs until they’ve figured this out.
So, at work we have to track our trips to various sites via a mileage tracker Excel sheet. It’s all very 1990’s and kind of silly to me. The thought was: what if I could build a website that could do it for us.
Well, I’ve started figuring it out conceptually and now I’m sort of stuck. I find when I’m stuck it’s best to write things out and figure out where I’m getting tripped up. That’s where you come in, blog-o-sphere (can we still use that word? Is it ok? Hip? And what not? IDGAF). Help me out.
2016 is rapidly approaching it’s (much needed) conclusion. 2016 was balls. Horrible, horrible, horrible balls. I am glad it is nearly over.
(RIP Carrie Fischer)
So a STEM teacher at the Middle School got a CO2 Racecar Kit (something like this). In passing she suggested that I make a race car to race with. Well, challenge: accepted.
Someone asked me earlier this week what I thought were hallmarks of professionalism, not in any specific context or job, but as a general rule.
It wasn’t a difficult question for me to answer, as I think about this from time to time as an IT-Semi-Professional. What did catch my attention though was some of the answers I heard from other people.
Let me start with what other people thought defined being professional.
AKA: Something that has caused me to lose a lot of hair.
My coworker Steve had started asking me questions about Windows 10 deployment, as we’re probably going to be in Windows 10 land next year. I said everything I’ve read involves deployment solutions other than Altiris, our current deployment solution. I said my roommate has suggested a bunch of things, but Windows Deployment Services is probably the easiest to work with.
If WDS is the easiest to work with, I am really glad I went with it because, my god, it has made me pull my hair out a lot over the past week
So on 11/16 I wrote about fixing “Janky Cables”, specifically regarding a console to USB cable. That post was available here.
I am pleased to report that the cable was successfully repaired!
Take a look at that. Isn’t that a beautifully patched cable?
As a reminder the pin-out was:
USB Black to RJ-45 Pin 2 (Brown-White)
USB Green to RJ-45 Pin 4 (Blue-White)
USB White to RJ-45 Pin 3 (Green)
USB Red to RJ-45 Pin 5 & 8 (Blue & Orange-White)
USB Shield to RJ-45 Pin 1 (Brown)
I soldered the individual wires in the cable and used heat-shrink tubing on the individual wires also.
Once I had the wires all soldered together, I carefully wrapped them in electrical tape. I then used another piece of heat-shrink tubing to bundle it all together and keep it from looking atrocious. Pin 6 and Pin 7 from the network cable are snipped and individually heat-shrink tubed to prevent feedback/cross connecting accidentally.
Sure enough, I plugged that cable into a Keypad and a Computer; the Keypad lit up immediately. Soon after I heard the standard Windows found hardware audio. A moment later, the keypad was responding to input and the PC accepted the input. Huzzah!
Sure, the colors don’t match up, but the cable actually works now.
And at the end of the day, when a new keypad is $180 and the only way to get this cable is via that (it’s not a standard Console to USB cable a’la Cisco): I’m very happy to have fixed 2 of them and saved the district close to $400.
Besides, they only have to last for a year until we switch to ID Card Barcode Readers.
I hope.
So I’ve been working on a project relating to Bungie’s game Destiny and it’s been an interesting project and process so far. It’s my first project of this scope and size, and it’s also a project I’m not getting paid for (both because I’m an idiot and because I like a challenge). I’ve learned a lot so far, especially about PHP Objects, Laravel (because my roommate won’t shut up about it [Sorry Nick], but it does sound really cool in his defense so I get where he’s coming from), CSS, and Javascript.
Reader beware, you’re in for a scare.
Fun times at the district last week. A broken cable lead to a frantic search for the oddest of cables: USB to RJ45-Console-Sort-Of-Not-Really.
Here’s what we’re dealing with (a good cable):
Sorry for the weird angle, I wasn’t thinking when I took it.
