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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
Happy spooky season, everyone! Here at Stardock, we love two things: Halloween, and desktop customization. Stardock Halloween 2019! Actually, we love quite a lot more than just those two things, but stick with me here! Halloween is on Saturday, and unfortunately this year won't be filled with the usual trick-or-treating hullabaloo (normally I get 400+ kids in my neighborhood!). That doesn't stop me from decorating for the holiday anyway! I'll be turning my porch light off this year, savin...
With so many choices in games available these days thanks to digital distribution, it can sometimes be hard to settle upon a choice of what to play when you happen to have an afternoon free to yourself. 4X is an extremely popular genre, and there's no question that there are hundreds of 4X-style games available on Steam and other platforms. Today, I want to talk a little bit about what sets Galactic Civilizations III (called GalCiv from here on out for brevity) apart from many of the other 4X...
Image courtesy Washington Department of Agriculture via Twitter 2020 has been quite a year already, but a few months ago nature decided to throw another curveball and add invasive Asian giant hornets - AKA Murder Hornets - to the proverbial Bingo card. Although we first heard about the hornets arriving in North America back in the winter of 2019, it has taken scientists some time to come up with strategies for how to locate and destroy the nests. Why all of the destruction, you ask? A...
A few weeks ago, we dove into the broader genre of strategy and discussed some of the many elements that make that genre what it is. Given that it’s October, I thought it would be timely to discuss a genre that has long terrified me (clearly it lives up to its name): horror. Horror and I have a very interesting relationship. I happen to have a rather overactive imagination and I’m fairly easily frightened, which isn’t a great combination for trudging through the m...
Space and science fans, rejoice, for there is good news from the Red Planet this week. The InSight heat probe, which launched its mission back in 2018, has finally completely buried itself on Mars. While this might not seem like news, your perspective might shift when you learn that until now, the self-hammering drill has experienced numerous challenges and setbacks that have hindered its mission to drill into the core of Mars and collect valuable data, including temperature readings. ...
Before coming to Stardock, I never really had a deep appreciation for Windows customization. I remember downloading the occasional Windows background and all sorts of skins (and frankly, probably viruses - sorry mom and dad!) for WinAmp back in my teen years, but that was about the extent of it. Since being here though, I've garnered an entirely new appreciation for being able to make my desktop look fun and unique - both my PC desktop AND my workspace desktop, too. My work de...
Back in September, Nvidia launched a somewhat rocky release for the RTX 3080. Almost immediately, the demand for the GPU overwhelmed the market, seeing it sold out everywhere online and in-store. Over a month later, online retailers like Amazon and Newegg still list the card as "Currently Unavailable" or "Out of Stock." There were even some users reporting that they had camped outside their local Micro Centers for days in order to secure one card out of an already extremely limited sto...
Hello there - it's your friendly neighborhood nerd, back to talk about video game movies again. Although this time, instead of discussing some of my favorite flicks from the 90's , we're going to touch on a movie that hasn't released yet but has been teased and in development: Monster Hunter. The above teaser is only 16 seconds long, but is enough to elicit an immediate "huh?" from anyone who is a fan of the game series. If you're not familiar with Monster Hunter, let me sum it up for y...
In an effort to create a more "deeply integrated user experience," Google has overhauled G Suite and rebranded it as Google Workspace earlier this week. The new Workspace has all of the old beloved programs - Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, etc., but has improved on how its productivity services blend and work together. Google Workspace now offers a more fluid experience; for example, users can create and collaborate on a document, but also discuss real-time changes in a chat room with a p...