I haven't been looking into building a new computer or upgrading the one I have recently, but that doesn't mean I haven't been hearing the buzz about all of the hard-to-find CPUs that have hit the market over the last year or so. I know, for instance, that AMD's Ryzen 5000 series has been fairly impossible to find. A few of my friends have been looking and the only luck they've had locating it is with a pretty inflated price tag attached. These processors have been around for a little while n...

If you had told me twenty years ago that the world would get to a point where thousands of people could tune in and watch people play a video game live just about anytime you want, I’d have called you crazy. And I definitely would have been wrong. When I pause to consider online streaming and all that it’s become, it really does just sort of leave me awestruck. I can’t believe how “on demand” things are now, from video and movie streaming services, ...

Everyone has preferences in gaming.   Some people prefer to play a game for some heart-pounding, fast-paced action. Others might enjoy something a little more serene, like a nice puzzle or “find it” game. Some play for the mechanics of the game itself, and others might play a game primarily for the story.   There are lots of reasons that I play games, but one of the things that compels me the most about them is the story. The gameplay could be incredible, an...

In an article from Bloomberg released last Saturday, Jason Schrier reports that Amazon's video game division canceled the development of an online MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) based on the fantasy series Lord of the Rings . Amazon announced the game back in 2019 to loads of fan excitement, but apparently one does not simply create a hit MMORPG.  A photo from Steve Jackson's Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring The developers at Amazon Game Studios...

I don’t worry too much about constantly tidying and organizing my PC - until it gets annoying, anyway. By then it’s too late, and I spend all sorts of time sorting icons and renaming folders. I’ll admit that I am pretty much the same way with my house - the idea of ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’ has never really resonated with me. This creates a special sort of chaos, which is fine - until it isn’t. I know that if I had a syst...

Image courtesy of NASA Back in February, NASA's Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars .  Perseverance  is equipped with all sorts of amazing tools and gadgets - including the first ever Mars Helicopter,  Ingenuity . Originally, the helicopter was scheduled to attempt its first flight early Monday morning, but data that NASA scientists received late last week have caused them to postpone the flight to no earlier than April 14th (that's today - wonder if ...

The USS  Johnston - photo courtesy of Caladan Oceanic This week, in "science is cool," the main section of a ship that sunk 77 years ago during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II has been discovered off of the Philippine coast. Resting over 4 miles beneath the surface, the USS  Johnston  is the deepest shipwreck ever to be investigated. The 376-foot long  Fletcher- class destroyer was discovered in the Philippine Trench near Samar Island at a depth of 21,...

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel! Vaccinations are rolling out and we’re all one step closer to being back together in person at the office. I know I don’t just speak for myself when I say that we’ve missed each other so much.  We’re still not quite ready to gather in person yet, so we’ve been taking our game nights online for the last year or so. A couple Fridays ago, we hosted an online trivia night using Discord. We offered a $20 Am...

I absolutely love a good joke. As long as the joke doesn’t hurt or disparage someone, I’m 100% for April Fools' pranks. While some corners of the internet are to be avoided on April 1st, I personally always look forward to some of the funny prank products that game and tech companies come up with for that day.  I got curious about the origins of April Fools' Day, so I did a bit of searching online and found a few different accounts. The most credible explanation of it...