Do you remember when you (or a family member) brought home your first computer? I do. It was right around 1995 when my dad purchased a Packard Bell (when I called him to talk about this blog, he informed me that his first PC was a Commodore Vic 20). At 10 years old, this technological marvel that he brought into our home fascinated me and drew my attention right from the second it was plugged in. The main draw? Packard Bell’s Navigator, an alternative shell for Windows 3.1 - sp...
I think most people are fairly well aware of this fact, but in case you aren't, there's something you need to know about Galactic Civilizations: it's been around for a really long time . The game's development actually started in Stardock CEO Brad Wardell's dorm room at Western Michigan State University back in 1993. It was just a hobby at first, until IBM heard about the game's development and sent Brad better tools and other goodies to work with. Galactic Civilizatio...
Nearly fourteen years ago, long before I arrived here at Stardock, some of my colleagues arrived to the office on a chilly morning. Tied to a post in the parking lot was a small poof-ball of a puppy, a little Shih Tzu mix, who would eventually come to be called Sophie. Sophie, in all her little floofy glory, not long after she was adopted by Pat Pretty much everyone here at Stardock is a major animal lover, so there wasn't any chance of Sophie being left out in the cold. Our manager ...
We make a lot of software here at Stardock, and while all of it is wonderful and useful in their own ways, there are just a couple of programs that I consider my “ride or dies” for my PC experience. Fences is absolutely at the top of that list (followed very closely by Groupy ). The basic functionality of organizing my icons, folders, and programs into fenced in areas on my PC desktop is great enough on its own, but the more I explored Fences I began to realize that ...
Galactic Civilizations III launched in 2015 just a month or two before I joined the team at Stardock. From my first day here, this particular title was my training ground as I navigated my new job and learned all of the products the marketing team is responsible for. It feels appropriate, then, as I pass my 5 year Stardock anniversary, that I take a look at GalCiv III and all of the expansions and DLC we’ve released over the years to continue making it a vast, enjoyable, exciti...
Everyone loves a good mystery, and officials in Utah recently stumbled upon a doozy . On November 18, the Utah Department of Public Safety discovered a shiny metallic monolith in a remote rural area of the Red Rock Country while surveying herds of big horn sheep by helicopter. The monolith is eerily similar to the one found in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey , though it doesn't come with its own iconic background music track. Officials have no idea who may have ...
Back at the beginning of quarantine, I talked a little bit about how Groupy helped me work from home . It saves me the desk space of having to juggle around too many monitors by letting me use my two-monitor setup more efficiently. It’s about more than just saving space, though. Groupy allows me to sort my work into categories, making it easier for me to compartmentalize what I’m working on, especially when I have several tasks working all at the same time. To b...
Image courtesy of NASA On Sunday, November 15, four astronauts departed Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship to the International Space Station for a 6-month mission. The launch was previously scheduled for Saturday evening, but weather forced a 24-hour delay even in the face of 50/50 odds of more unsafe weather conditions. Fortunately, the weather was clear and the launch went off without issue. The crew for the spaceship is comprised of four astronauts: Shannon Walker, Mike Hopki...
The PS5. So shiiinyy... A recent system update for PlayStation 4 had several news outlets including Eurogamer and IGN buzzing about the new "PS5 Remote Play" app that has started appearing for European users after the update. It seems that in order to keep its last-gen console relevant in users' homes, Sony has engineered the PS5 so that it can be streamed to a PS4 console. Via wifi, this new app will let users stream games installed on their PS5 to another television in the hou...
Image from CDC.gov A few weeks after quarantine began in March, I woke up feeling under the weather. I had a headache, a stuffy nose, and a sore throat that was making me cough. Under normal circumstances, I'd recognize it as seasonal allergies rearing their ugly head, but considering the pandemic I immediately went to, "Oh crap, is this Covid?!" Fortunately for me, a brief nap at lunchtime shook most of the symptoms and when I woke up at 100% the next day, I realize I had perhaps pan...