Fallout 4 - Many Layers of Strategy

About a month ago I bought the Game of the Year Edition of Fallout 4.  I paid about thirty dollars on a Steam sale and I got a great value for my money.  I am glad I waited for the Game of the Year Edition to come out.  I really try to wait until a game goes "Gold" or comes out in a Game of the Year Edition.  By that time most of the bugs have been worked out, all the additional paid content gets put in the game and the price is way lower.  If I had bought the game and then paid for the downloaded content I could have easily bought a buggy game that could have cost over a hundred dollars.  If I would have bought the game back then I probably would not have been happy.  I also have played the previous Fallout games over the years.  This is not your father's Fallout.  If you accept the game the way it is you will be happy.  If you are looking for an experience that you remember you may not be that happy.  The game has changed in some ways that I did not initially like.

Finished PHP and Basic WordPress Classes

I finished watching the PHP and Basic WordPress classes on StudioWeb.  The WordPress class was on another linked website even though you can't see it from the StudioWeb page listing.  They both were good but now it is time for me to slow down and actually work with code.  I have a practice site that is up and I will be going back through all the classes one video at a time to modify it.

Finished JavaScript Class and Moving on to PHP

I finished the JavaScript class and I am starting the PHP class for Studio Web.  Towards the end of the JavaScript class things got a little blurry so I definitely will have to repeat the content.  I took HTML and CSS classes and tutorials before so I was able to follow along just fine. But JavaScript was new for me so it was harder.  I am starting the PHP class and I can see how once you have learned one programming language it helps you learn the next one.  Studio Web has been a great investment.  The instruction is clear and everything fits together well.  I won't be an expert after finishing PHP but I feel that I will be ready to start taking some classes in web development and I won't struggle as much to keep up.  I'll post again when I finish the PHP class and decide what direction I will go next.

Finished the CSS Class

This is a follow up post to my Stefan Mischook's Web Developer Course is Good post.  I finished the CSS class and I am about half way through the JavaScript class.  Stefan made the CSS class just as easy to understand as the HTML class.  So far the JavaScript class is following the same pattern of being easy to use.  I can't wait to finish JavaScript and move on to PHP.  I haven't been actively coding with the lessons because it is easier for me to get the big picture first and then go back and learn and experience all the details.  I will post again when I finish the JavaScript course, but so far so good.

Stefan Mischook's Web Developer Course is Good

I watch a lot of YouTube.  I came across a channel by Stefan Mischook. He has a lot of videos about web coding and I got hooked.  The videos he posted are some of the same videos he sells at his course website (https://shop.killervideostore.com/).  I like the fact that he posted a substantial amount of "samples" on YouTube.  It gave me an idea of the content and his teaching style.  He was advertising lifetime access for $29 (Check his website for current prices.) for the content.  Money wise I think it is a bargain.  They are quality videos at a very low price.  Yes, I would have liked all of them to be free on YouTube but the price is very reasonable. I feel more like I am supporting his YouTube channel with a small donation than paying for the content.

Joining CompTIA AITP With High Hopes

CompTIA just started their new association called AITP (Association of IT Professionals).  Last night I joined after receiving an email informing me they were finally allowing people to sign up.  I put myself on a waiting list and was glad to receive  the email.

Rogue One - Assault on the File Room

I watched Rogue One on Netflix last weekend and thought there were some funny things about it.  Yes I know, Rogue One came out a long time ago so why review it now?  Well, the current crop of movies that have been based on Star Trek and Star Wars just don't excite me anymore like they used to.  I've decided to just wait for them to come to streaming/television instead of paying the big bucks at the movie theater.

Web Development 101 for TechFrankness

I am having to work on the new SharePoint site at work.  My interest in web development and everything related to it has been renewed.  There are some things that our SharePoint site cannot do without buying a plugin or service from a vendor.  So I am back to writing some simple code to create little things on the SharePoint site.  It will help with the budget at work but it is making things interesting and fun for me too.

Why I Switched to an Android Phone

The primary reason I switched to an Android phone was because of price.  I wanted to get a new iPhone but the prices were just too high for me.  My price point is around $300 or less for a lot of things that I buy, including cell phones.  I might have been able to find an older iPhone refurbished/used for that or less. Since I felt that I would be facing this high price premium for Apple products on my future phone purchases I chose a new Android phone instead of a used iPhone.  I felt I needed to jump off the iPhone train before I couldn't hold on anymore.  I may regret my decision and run back to the iPhone but I want to at least give Android a fair try.

WiFi Calling on T-Mobile

One of the reasons that I bought a new cell phone was that I was having coverage problems.  I always had good coverage with Verizon until I moved from San Diego to my new apartment in Lakeside.  Inside my new apartment I would get very bad connections and dropped calls.  The phone was unusable inside the apartment, but take two steps outside the door and I could make a phone call.  I suspected there was some sort of interference inside the apartment so changing carriers wasn't going to solve the  problem.

My New Phone With T-Mobile

A while back I bought a Moto G5 Plus through Ting.  I tested it for several weeks and decided it was finally time to replace my old iPhone 4 (yes 4 not 4S!) with the G5 as my main phone.  I also decided now was the time to leave Verizon and try another carrier and so I took a chance and went with T-Mobile.  Last Saturday I had T-Mobile replace Ting's SIM with theirs and port my Verizon iPhone's number to it.  Well, three days on T-Mobile is hardly a test but so far I am happy.  I will be adding posts updating my experiences and go into more detail why I made my decisions on phone purchase and moving carriers.  I don't think all my reasons translate to everyone else's needs.  Unfortunately in technology one solution doesn't fit all. Hopefully someone will find my experience useful in their decisions to change or even stay with their iPhone or Verizon.   Will I go back to the iPhone or Verizon?  Time will tell but I will let you know how things are going in the meantime.

Computer Games Going Into a New Phase?

GOG.com was selling Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas and Oblivion at a discount price of $9.99 each.  Although GOG.com has released other "high-resolution" games before, I think computer gaming is going into another phase.

IMAX 3D Not So Great

I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in IMAX 3D.  Guardians was a good movie.  It wasn't a grand epic science fiction classic but it was fun and better than most of the science fiction I have seen recently.  I liked it because it didn't take itself too seriously and just tried to entertain.  The special effects were great, the story good and the actors fit into the story without over or under acting.  I was excited to see this movie in IMAX 3D because I had seen Avatar in IMAX 3D and was blown away.  This time IMAX 3D for Guardians didn't seem to add that much to the movie experience for me.

Paul Thurrott: Is This The End of Microsoft Office as We Know It?

Paul Thurrott wrote a simple and easy to understand article about the direction Microsoft is going with Microsoft Office.  I subscribe to Microsoft Office because I need the latest version for work purposes.  After reading this article I feel better about doing this since that is the direction Microsoft wants us to go anyway.  

Is This The End of Microsoft Office as We Know It? https://t.co/AiDts9XU4c

— TechFrankness (@techfrankness) May 16, 2017

Mary Jo Foley: Great Windows 10 Update and Versions Article

More changes coming to Microsoft's Windows as a Service strategy https://t.co/p52nE1QwmI via @ZDNet & @maryjofoley

— TechFrankness (@techfrankness) May 10, 2017

Mary Jo Foley always has great articles about Microsoft products.  I like this one because it explains Microsoft's update and patching strategy and the vocabulary describing it that Microsoft loves to change.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060: Lower Power is Better

My AMD Radeon R7 265 is a good card.  I play a lot of older games and probably the most demanding games I play are Fallout 3 and Skyrim.  The 265 held up just fine but I was looking to update the card.  I chose to update to the Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060.  The 1060 is more powerful in processing video than the 265 and I can tell that mostly when I play Skyrim.  The video I see while playing games seems smoother and the fans in my PC don't run as loud.  The 1060 is not the most powerful card Nvidia offers and probably won't run the latest games on full settings or very smoothly.  That is okay since I won't be playing those games for a couple of years from now.  I don't buy games right away.  Prices for games are too high when they are released.  I also wait to buy until I have a computer that I can afford that can actually play them!

New Computer Games Cost Too Much For Me

While searching the game retail site called Steam I came to the conclusion that new computer games cost too much.  Once you add the price of some new games and their extra content you can easily spend over a hundred dollars.  My price range for games is thirty dollars or less.  Spending a hundred dollars or more for a program is something I have to justify in terms of work and school.  Gaming for me isn't a "lifestyle" it is just a entertaining diversion that I enjoy.  I think the gaming industry is taking itself too serious and has forgotten that games are for play and are not that important.

4K TV Not Right For Me

When I recently moved my old 720p TV died. I was in a hurry to replace it and didn't really do any shopping or research. When I did my shopping it seemed that 4K was pretty cheap and looked great in the store so I picked up a 55 inch 4K and headed home. The picture did not look anything like the store showroom. I had bought too much TV for my little apartment that was hooked up to my cable TV and Roku. Here is what I found.

Well...it has been a while since I updated this site. I have been very busy but I want to get back into blogging again. I have a few new things to say about tech that I would like to share. I am going to try adding shorter posts like this instead of just posting the very long article style posts I have done in the past. Some of these smaller posts will be about tech but they will be more like a diary entry about my tech life. I like writing longer articles but I think the amount of time it took to write them kept me from keeping the site current. Time to get back into blogging and change up the format a little!