I have a brand new blog located at ExtremeTechie.com. Feel free to check it out, I’ll be adding Entrecard as soon as they approve me.
This blog will focus on the random stuff that I have been posting here or the stuff that is just ranting. Really, I want this blog to stay more on topic and not go off into never never land 
Don’t worry, I will still be posting here quite often when it’s most definitely technology related.
You should definitely check this demo out pronto. FEAR is an awesome scifi FPS (First Person Shooter) game, the sequel of that being Project Origin. I have played through FEAR so many times and I’ve been looking forward to the demo and the full game for ages. The demo is also available for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Quickest download link I found was here: http://www.bigdownload.com/ (PC) I was able to download at 1.1MB/s from this link. It might not be as fast for you, depending on your location, but still it’s a good start since places like Gamershell are bogged down quite a bit with the release of this demo.
Will update the post with a full review of the demo once I get done playing it 
First Impressions
I’m glad to say I can max the game at 1680×1050 with everything maxed including AA. That means it’s not too resource hungry, unlike the original FEAR where it was VERY hungry
The game feels a lot like FEAR including all of the “spooks”. I’m not sure I really like the new engine yet, I think I just have to get used to it. Seems like the same engine used in timeshift etc. Not sure, don’t really have time to look it up. The graphics are very good, regardless. Much improved from the first game. I knew they were getting rid of health packs ahead of time, but really I think they should have kept them. I liked health packs 
Mainly because you were forced to explore and scare yourself with something
The clones look kind of strange to me, like I said I didn’t get a real good look since I only played for about 15min.. I have to go to sleep so I don’t have time 
The overall “chaos” is still felt strongly as you move through the demo, which is good, that’s what I like about FEAR. Books and glass all flying around and dust, debris explosions, Alma screwing with you, all good fun.I don’t think it will take me long to beat, however since things are so similar to FEAR, but I will enjoy it, I’m sure.
Screen shots/Video I might put up tomorrow, mmm… tired.
Beat the demo
It took me approximately 30min to get through the demo on “high” difficulty. Mostly because I’m not so familiar with the new FEAR. I know the demos overdo Alma, and they are segments of various places in the full game. Much is the same, much has changed.
Further exploring the game I found that there WAS a slight bit of lag on my system with everything maxed out. I believe this is because I pumped up the AA too much. I will probably have to lower that slightly. The graphics are pretty awesome really, not Crysis beautiful, but they work well for the game.
There ARE health packs. I’m a little confused on the health system. I really have no idea what amount of health I have at any given time, because it’s nothing like the FEAR I know. I’m guessing it’s similar, though. It seems you recharge to a certain point, probably based on difficulty like the original FEAR. I guess the developers got rid of the recharging Halo type idea. Last I heard, that’s what they were doing.
There are mechs kind of like Lost Planet! That’s about the only thing I liked about Lost Planet, I’m glad they put it in FEAR 2. There are also snipers. Not saying there weren’t snipers in the original FEAR, but these are actually sniper rifles, not plasma rifles. I find myself defaulting to my old favorite G2A2.
The demo does very little to explain the controls or what is going on to a new user, you just dive right into action. They kept the phones, which is good I liked the phones, but often I wouldn’t listen to them, but I liked to have them there.
Alma is as spooky as ever, which is great. Gotta love it.
Conclusion
Congrats Monolith, you just made me more excited about the full version of FEAR 2. Everything I wanted in FEAR 2 seems to be there.
Own a website? Ever think about security? If not, well you’re asking for trouble.
These are the best things you can do to secure your website properly
Own your server? You’ll probably want to do this as well, on top of the list above.
Just searching around reveals to me that there are far too many insecure websites out there, that could easily enough become fairly secure by following at least some of these methods. You can never be too secure, there are new vulnerabilities found every day, and there is no shortage of malicious users out there ready to deface your website or gain root login to your server for the fun of it. There are many more tactics out there for security, but these are some of the better tactics that will deter most people. Be careful out there.
Thanks go out to nukeit.org
Irssi is a very interesting IRC client. It runs completely through the command prompt. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. On windows, you can install it through the executable. It will run through DOS/Putty command lines. On Linux, you can either compile it or install from a binary, through apt-get or something similar. It runs through Bash, obviously.
I have found, that for chatting Irssi can be very powerful. You can connect to any number of networks, and rotate through them with ctrl-x, in the same window. Then you can join any channel on that network. It uses an interesting window system, where you change windows with /window #. There are many other features like auto connect etc.
I find myself rotating through the windows a lot to see what’s going on in each, but that’s expected. It’s really not a problem. I like to have my SSH/FTP or whatever else right next to each other in the command prompt. Tabbing programs is great.
There are many plug ins available for Irssi, that are perl scripts. They are very easy to install and run. One thing many people do not like to start is there is no user list off to the side. This can be remedied by installing a user list plug in, something like this http://www.bellot.net/cyril/contribs:irssi-nicklisthoriz . I have yet to use it, since I haven’t really found a need for a nicklist. When you join a channel, it gives you a list of users, that you can generally use the PgUP button to see.
In conclusion, Irssi is a very useful command line based IRC application. I believe the developers did a great job. I’ve enjoyed using it quite a bit, since it keeps my programs more organized, and it’s easy to use. Check it out!
