I don't like the Tea Party.

That's pretty blunt. I don't like the "Tea Party Movement." But I have huge hopes for it, even as I support our president and hope he weathers the oncoming storm.

See, the biggest problem with the Tea Party Movement is that - well, it's not a party. And no, I don't mean paper hats, noisemakers and drinks, I do mean this in the political sense. The tea party movement is summed up in two words - "We're mad."

Well, that's great. Discontent - something rather solidly American - drives change, if you want to do the work, if your politicians listen and do their jobs. But the tea party movement isn't any more defined than that - they're just mad about *everything.* Some over things that are patently false (Obama "not being american," policies that are more conservative than Nixon and that the Republicans offered a decade ago being "socialist" and the like,) some are just foolish ("Throw the bums out" being a rallying cry against incumbents,) and even internally, there's just no agreement. Find something to get a bunch mad and point them -

They're being a herd, and they're being used. And they're not, in their current form, good for the country.

However, that's also a hope for me for them, because our current parties are the *same way.* Less than a generation ago, we had political discourse. Yes, we had Democrats and Republicans - we had conservative, moderate, and liberals in both parties, though. They could work together far better than they seem to now - when it seems the only thing that's going to happen are party-line votes and mudslinging. (Yes, I realize that happens in politics, in many cases defines it, but it seems more entrenched now.)

My hope for the tea party? That they manage to shatter the parties. That we get a range of people - or better yet, actually get a viable third, or fourth, party out there, made of those broken away from the monoliths of Democrat and Republican. Those that would *have* to be worked with, those that would prevent "We're just going to say no to everything" from locking down government.

It needs to happen. Two parties, as long as we've had them, are dangerous. When they calcify, nothing gets done. We need a third... and while the Tea Party Movement isn't a party, maybe they can organize their anger enough to light a fire under those who *can* form a viable, long lasting party that can be taken seriously.

Note, I know there are "other parties," but really, when they don't even form a blip on the radar...

Dear EA Games

I hate what you did to C&C4.

No, this isn't dislike. This is actual hate. I've tried to like the game. I've liked the series for years - C&C was far superior to Warcraft. C&C2... eh. C&C3 rocked, and C&C4 - crash, burn. (Similar to Red Alert - 1 and 2 were great. 3 sucks, *hard.*)

I'd like to know what the hell you were thinking. OK, you're run by someone who thinks games shouldn't be fun. Mission fucking accomplished. I'm really hoping someone makes a good C&C3 mod to tell a better ending story.

Let's see, what's wrong with C&C4?

1. New engine.

Ok. Yeah, it's "not like other RTS games." Congrats. So give it a new series, one that can die in a fire somewhere if it sucks. Don't do this massive change to an existing IP and ignore your playerbase when, in beta, they tell you "This is not fun." The whole "No base, pop cap, limited resource" thing? It's as non-C&C it might as well be X&X. It hurts gameplay, and it hurt the story.

2. "Always online."

I'm sorry, but I hate this. I want to go through the single player stuff on my own. Yes, I CAN pick solo - but I STILL need an internet connection (unless I hunt down a crack and risk viruses and the like,) STILL need to see a chat room full of people babbling in 1337 "u sux" "i pwnt u lulz" to each other. Of course, now those rooms are DEAD because, well, nobody wants to deal with the game. I just want to hop in, play the campaign, maybe a skirmish, and go on about my business.

Oh, it's an anti-piracy measure? Guess what this boneheaded, dumbass move is encouraging as people go to find cracks for it - either just to use the game, or in lieu of buying it AT ALL. (I bought it. I'm regretting it.)

3. Persistent XP and leveling.

Oh. My. God. Who the HELL thought this was a good idea? Especially when, frankly, you *need* the Tier3 stuff in the last mission to beat that damn bomber. Guess what. I haven't unlocked it. The other games? By the time you've gotten there, you've been introduced to all your units. You just have to build through your tech tree, live, and win. It might be a hard fight, but it's doable. Here? You're not rewarded for being clever, sneaking people over to take over a base, for instance. Nope, that costs you XP. So, at level 11 on the last mission? I have no idea what I need to unlock Tier3. I get to *grind.* I don't like grind in MMOs. I Sure as *fuck* don't like it in my C&C.

4. No bases.

Look, I get the whole "wanting to keep combat fluid." And I actually kind of like control points affecting the game. But having to wander around in this damn "crawler," trying to spit out the units I'll need, not being able to set up defenses if I'm nto the right "kind" or make a backup to affect production, or any of the hundreds of other things you can do with a base - including what you can do to the *enemy's* base, like capture it and use his own weapons against him - ugh. This sucks.

5. No Tiberium.

No harvesting - just picking up crystals that, for some reason, are delivered to a battlefield... what? One of the linchpins of the game story has been the overtaking of Earth by Tiberium crystals. The economic warfare is a big part of the gameplay. You're telling me everything's scoured clean? No, I'm not buying it.

I thought "co-commanders" were irritating in RA3. C&C4? Makes RA3 look like a jewel by comparison.

EA, just go out of business already. If this is your "plan" for games? You don't deserve to be in the industry.

Dear idiot fake-WoW-admin spammer:

Yes, you. You with the fake Blizzard email address.

Just knock it off. Seriously. I get several fake "Your account has violated EULA section XYZ," "For account security we need you to..." and similar emails a week now. It's past pathetic.

I don't normally do this, but I'm going to help you out here. Do you want to know why these emails don't work on me? I'll give you a hint. No, it's not spelling errors, or the fact I DO check out links before ever clicking on them, or my email program saying "This looks like a scam!" or anything similar. Admittedly, all those and more were the reasons I didn't fall for it in Aion, but this is about WoW.

No, the reason I don't fall for your little scheme is this. I don't have a WoW account. Never had, other than a trial, oh, five years ago where I decided I hated the way the game looked and played.

Now stop wasting my time and leave me the hell alone. Thanks.

What creates a "fanboi?" (Brand devotion and regrets)

Argh.

So, earlier this year I finished building up my nice new gaming/main system that, if all goes as planned, should last me a few years. (My previous one did yeoman duty through two processor upgrades, a video card upgrade, an OS beta and upgrade, and is currently my media center - maybe not the most power efficient one, but it's still going strong. I just couldn't upgrade it any longer - can't get past an early Phenom for the CPU, and you can't find those now.) Four years of regular use, and I'm sure I'll get a few more out of it as a media center. Not bad.

Most of it went pretty well - I (reluctantly, I must say) jumped ship from AMD processors to the shiny new Core i7-860, which was my first sacrifice, actually - being a core 1156 (think I have that number right) processor, it costs less, memory (dual instead of triple channel) costs less, and it performs great (at lower power,) plus Win7 sees it as an 8 core CPU... but I will never, according to Intel, be able to use a six core processor with it. (Those reserved for the 13xx series sockets.)

I don't actually mind, TBH, as all I'm giving up are bragging rights. Very little actually uses multiple cores (Handbrake did max it out, which was just nifty to see,) and by the time games and apps generally do I figure I'll be ready to build another system (4-5 years or so.) Still, the multiple sockets, multiple upgrade paths and rapid socket obsolescence are things I'd held against Intel for a while - that and price.

I'll live with that, though. That's fine.

What I'm not all that happy with, though, is the other ship I jumped - from nVidia to ATI. (Yeah, I gave up AMD on one side and picked them up on the other, AMD, of course, owning ATI now.) In this system - partially to get ready for City of Heroes' "Ultra mode" in Issue 17 - I wanted to get a worthwhile graphics card. I'd initially specced out an nVidia 260/216. I'd waited to have one from XFX (great company, my last several cards have been from them) come around. But nVidia, for whatever reason, seriously cut supply. Part of it, apparently, was from the fabs, and part of it was waiting for Fermi (the newly released 470/480 indoor grills... er, cards.) Supply was *just not there.*

Now, I'd vowed not to buy ATI again back in the Radeon 7000 days. That, though, was mostly due to being infuriated at their support. It was a nightmare, mostly of being told (mutliple times) to do things I'd done before contacting them. (I do tech support, I do know how to troubleshoot, and gave them detailed information on *detailed* troubleshooting, removal, cleanup, etc. - all of which was roundly ignored.)

Well, with AMD buying them, the 5000 HD series getting good reviews (and being lower power users than nVidia,) plus having DirectX 11 support (futureproofing as much as I can,) I figured "What the hell." I ended up picking up a Radeon HD 5770 from XFX.

Now, let me say from the start this card *has* shown me good performance. For a sub-$200 card, it's hard to beat. However...

Yeah, always a but.

First was some expected problems. ATI has had issues with City of Heroes historically. There's a setting that fixes many of them ("Compatiblecursors -1") but still - going over enhancements = a jump to the other side, and there are other little things here and there that are just odd or irritating. But they're not gamebreaking - I could put up with them. People have for years, after all.

What's making me regret buying this card, though... the Grey Stripes of Death. Or sometimes just the Grey Screen of Death. See, I'll be playing... well, one of many games. Left 4 Dead 2 or Borderlands, most often - good, solid titles I've had no issues with, when all of a sudden, *WHAM* - grey screen. Or grey stripes. System totally unresponsive, can't get to the desktop, can't kill the game, all you can do is hard-boot the system... something I hate doing.

I've jumped through the hoops. I've fiddled with fan speed, with settings, I've reloaded drivers. I've unloaded, gone to safe mode, used DriverCleaner (nice little program, BTW,) grabbed the 10.3 drivers and loaded those... nada.

Waiting for the next steps from XFX, but... I'm really wishing those 260s had stayed out in quantity. So far this experience is doing nothing but making me want to give nVidia more money and send them an apology for ever trying ATI. And I can't blame XFX - this is an issue that's been going on with all ATI cards, apparently not even "just" the 5-series.

I'm not impressed - but it's definitely strengthening my devotion to nVidia as a customer.

(Now, as far as the title - no, I wouldnt' call myself a "fanboi" - I'll criticize nVidia as well when they screw up, like the current gen's 480/470 running so hot, being late, and what has been happening to prior-gen card availability. That's a massive screwup and can only hurt them. And I've been through the OS wars, arguing against NT, defending OS/2, lauging at Win95... yeah, that old, my current attitude being "use what works and what you like." But this sort of thing does nothing but strengthen those sorts of arguments - and brand loyalty.)

Royal Class = Ebil!

So. Eduard has really become a name in the model kit industry. They're making very good kits, especially World War I aircraft though they've had several WWII aircraft come out, with interesting markings, accurate and generally easy assembly.

They have their standard kit, with some of the photoetch that made their name. They have the weekend editions, with no PE (and a lower price.) They have the twin packs, with photoetch and two kits (obviously.) Then they have their Royal Class kits - with lots of goodies, resin, extras, and a ton of markings... and two kits.

Those royal class kits are evil.

I have both that they've released, the BF-110 (with a wide variety of markings and several versions,) and the F6F Hellcat.

The 110 was bad enough - I'm considering purchasing another standalone kit to use one set of markings. THe Hellcat? Covering both -3 and -5 versions, night fighters, drones, even some foreign markings. After much deliberation, I'm planning (once I have room/time/etc) to make the F6F-3n night fighter and... well, I don't know, probably the French version. (Simple overall blue scheme.) And then... buy some more kits, since I want the two drones as well as the cannon armed -5n.

I'm going to have a regular stack.

Then again, I do buy and build for interesting aircraft and interesting schemes - it's why I've built (and will continue to build) so many Hobbycraft P-36 Hawks. I could fill a few shelves and not have two look alike.

Still - you *know* they had that in mind when they put out the royal class kits. Continued income for them. And when one's on my favourite aircraft list, well....

Norton - still too invasive

So. Recently finished up the new system, the one that, if my old one (currently my TV) is any indication, should hold me for the next 4 years or so with upgrades. (First Intel system since the Pentium 90, first ATI card since the Radeon 7000.)

My ISP (Comcast) used to give Mcafee away free. And I generally like Mcafee as a suite - it stays out of the way, gets its job done and that's that. Recently, however, they switched to Norton. Well, free is free...

Now, I haven't liked Norton in a long time. If there was a networking problem, I used to ask if they put Norton on their system (and often the answer was yes.) Something odd, a program not running or the like? Norton. But, it's been a few years, and I'd heard the current version was pretty good - so what the heck.

Nope. Not doing that again. As an AV, it works. As a firewall, it works - too well. I wish it would stop there, though. Instead, it runs the gamut from the minor irritation (do I REALLY need a desktop widget that says "Protected" in a neon green square? That's what the notification area icons are for, guys,) to the "I'm still going to ignore what you say" (Site scans, advisors, etc. that you *just can't turn off* in Firefox - well, you CAN turn them off, but they turn themselves back on again - no, really, I know what I'm doing, I don't need Norton to second guess me) to the most recent - screwing with the OS.

I like Windows 7. Have since the beta. Pre-RC, I ran it, and would have bought it *then.* It's only gotten better. One of the nice things (admittedly a carryover from Vista, aka "The paid for Win7 beta,") is the nice, instant search from the start menu. Type in a document, program name, part of one - and stuff comes up.

Well, it does unless you install Norton, apparently. At which point typing in "Notepad" or "Openoffice" (for instance) gives a generic icon called "Program." Or maybe that and one called "Document." Clicking on this generic icon gives an error about... your security program not allowing access.

Ripped out norton, had to do a registry tweak to get functionality back. Stuff like this makes for a personal boycott (including badmouthing your product,) Symantec. It's why I completely ignored ATI, even when they were doing well with the All-in-Wonder cards (bad support experience with that Radeon 7000 - the only thing that made me give them another try was AMD buying them out) and... well, prior Norton experience.

Now to see if I can find another copy of Mcafee....