28 February 06 - 19:14Call of Duty 2
A friend loaned me a copy of Call of Duty 2 for the PC. It came on 6 cds. As it was installing, the installer not only took over my screen (alt-tabbing worked to get to what I was doing), but it insisted on playing an overly dramatic score. While the score was nice and I do hope the in game music is up to that level of quality, I was listening to Eve 6 and would have prefered to finish that during the 15 minutes it took to install the game.
Note to installer programmers: Let the user continue to do other things while your installer is running, this is particularly true of modern games which can be several gigs.
Addendum to game installer programmers: Do not ask the user to reinsert a disc that has already been used in the install process to continue the installer.
Addendum to game publishers and programmers: If a disc is required to be left in the drive for the game to be played, label that disc. And definately don't give a error message upon trying to play the game like "Please insert the correct CD/DVD-ROM, select OK and restart the application".
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22 February 06 - 11:29Ask Slashdot
I have many issues with Ask Slashdot, but the occassional gem of a question makes it worthwhile for me to skim them all. Every once in awhile I can't refrain from making fun of a particular one.
Dear Slashdot: I am very insecure about my manliness and make up for it by spending money on electricity, cooling, and uneeded computers and networking bits. Normally I inflict discussion of my leet home network on my coworkers, but they seem to be avoiding me. So now I will start an idiotic discussion here on /. about my home network, in some vain hope that I will be proven to have the awesomest home network on teh intarweb.
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02 February 06 - 15:28Thermal paper receipts and cryptic item descriptions
I hate the thermal paper receipts that seem to have become the norm in most major retailers. I am sorting through a file folder of old receipts and nearly all of the ones printed on thermal paper that are more than a year old are hard to read. After two years they are nearly illegible. These are receipts that have lived most of their lives out of the sun in a file folder. I note that all of the receipts from dot matrix printers are still clear and easy to read (even after 5 years in the case of some of them).
This was in theory just complaints about thermal paper receipts, but I'll add another complaint about stores that that print cryptic number and letter combinations instead of a useful description of the item purchased. For example, what did I purchase in May of 2000 for $99.99? It is listed on the receipt as 4769075. Or how about an ES40015 purchased for $59.99 in late May of 2000.
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